Jimmy

Years ago, a friend and myself found ourselves in Savannah, GA, which gave us the perfect opportunity to visit the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum located just off Interstate-95 in the nearby community of Pooler.

I'd always wanted to go. The Eighth Air Force, which was created in Savannah, is legendary in the annals of World War II aviation and the bombing campaign that was instrumental in the downfall of Nazi Germany.

Once inside the building, we found ourselves immersed in World War II memorabilia, interactive displays, documents, videos and even a few restored aircraft, including a B-17 bomber and, if memory serves, a P-51 fighter.

Jimmy Stewart receiving the DFC.*

 One of the first things I saw – and came back to – was a wartime recruiting film clip featuring the actor Jimmy Stewart. Stewart – who had just earned his private pilot's license – famously suspended his acting career in 1941 to volunteer for the U.S Army as a buck private. He was initially rejected by the Army because of his slight, slender frame (he failed the Army's weight requirement by five pounds). Nevertheless, he appealed the rejection. It is said he beefed up by eating steaks and drinking milkshakes to eventually tip the scales in his favor. And after he was accepted into the service on his second go-round, he was logically assigned to the Army Air Corps. He'd already logged more than 400 hours of civilian flight time by the time of his induction.

I mention this because a new movie has come out called Jimmy, detailing the wartime experience of Stewart. The movie covers the time between his winning the Oscar for his role opposite Kathryn Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story in 1940, all the way to his role in It's a Wonderful Life, his first post-war film in 1946.

I'd pretty much loved most of the Jimmy Stewart movies I've seen, and the list is remarkable: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Shop Around the Corner, Winchester '73, The Stratton Story, Harvey, The Glenn Miller Story, Rear Window, Strategic Air Command, The Spirit of St. Louis, Vertigo, and on and on and on. He could have – and maybe should have – won Oscars for any one of those.

There was just something about the man that was irresistible. Was it his distinctive western Pennsylvania accent? Was it his Everyman persona? What was it?

So I was eager to see this biopic.

I came away with mixed feelings.

KJ Apa, who I've never heard of, did a credible job portraying Stewart. He pretty much nailed Stewart's unique voice patterns without it being a forced impersonation. I don't know who could have done a better job.

But I had issues with other things. With details.

The movie would have you believe that Stewart flew in a B-24 heavy bomber named Danny Boy. Nope. Stewart flew one time in Nine Yanks and a Jerk. It was in the Dixie Flyer when his plane was hit by an anti-aircraft shell, putting a hole in the cockpit floor from which he could see the earth below him. That startling near-death detail was simply glossed over in mere seconds in the flick. What the heck?

His final wartime ride was in Male Call. Sounds like it could have been the title of one of his movies.

You can Google this stuff. I did. 

Then there was depicted a possible romantic liaison with a woman named Lady Julia, but it turns out Lady Julia was simply a composite character designed to represent any of Stewart's wartime relationships. Lady Julia spent too much time on screen, I thought, trying to help him negotiate his way through self doubt and, perhaps, a developing case of PTSD.

There were a couple of scenes in which there were pre-mission briefings. It would be here where bomber crews learned what were their targets, weather conditions, what to expect from German resistance and other details. But the movie also shows crews having philosophical discussions about the war during these meetings, which I'm pretty sure never happened.

In one such scene, Stewart bucks up the men with a jingoistic "why we fight" speech that almost had me ready to enlist. And I'm 75. 

When the war ended, Stewart went back to acting as a changed man. In fact, he wondered if he could ever act again.

On the set of It's a Wonderful Life, Stewart and co-star Lionel Barrymore (Mr. Potter) would have discussions – some said they were at times heated – about whether Stewart should continue acting. Barrymore finally convinced Stewart that he should embrace his gift and that acting was a noble profession. This is depicted in the movie. Thank you, Mr. Barrymore.

But the movie suddenly turns absurd during their discussion. Barrymore was bound to a wheelchair the last decade of his life by severe arthritis and two broken hips. In the movie, however, he miraculously rises from his wheelchair to be replaced by – Jimmy Stewart! Why? Why allow this nonsense to happen?

Also, there's a famous scene where Stewart kisses co-star Donna Reed during a phone call. The kiss is passionate. Stewart seems lost in another life. According the the IMDb movie site, Stewart was nervous about his first on-screen kiss since returning from the war. The scene was filmed in one unrehearsed take and was so intimate that part of it was cut to pass the censors. The kiss is shown in the biopic, but without much explanation or detail. I think it might have been a pivotal moment in Stewart's real battle with PTSD. I don't know if Donna Reed ever commented on this moment, but I figure she must have sensed the trauma Stewart was going through. At least, I hope so.

There is another famous scene where Stewart, as a distraught and suicidal George Bailey, is praying in Martini's bar. But it's Stewart who is, in reality, distraught and begins to sob in front of the camera. Once again, the movie goes a little berserk, with Stewart finding his motivation with the ghosts of dead fellow airmen who materialize in his vision – and salute him. Oh, my. There's such a thing as artistic license, but don't go overboard with it.

The best part of the movie were the closing credits. Here they used actual film clips and photos of the real Jimmy Stewart during his acting and wartime careers. They were moving and inspiring and they brought me as close to tears as anything in the film itself.

I'm not saying don't go see this flick. It had its moments. It did a good job portraying a decent man struggling with the absolute indecency and horror of war. How could it be otherwise?

•   •   •

When Kim and I went to the theater yesterday, the first thing we noticed was the audience. All 30 or so of us, to a person, was a senior citizen.

Nobody paid full price. Senior citizen discounts for all. 

As Kim noted, it's likely the younger the generations that behind us, the more likely it is they don't even  know who Jimmy Stewart is.

 And that makes me sad.

What Jimmy Stewart did was heroic. The Eighth Air Force lost 26,000 men killed in combat and another 28,000 who became prisoners of war. 

By contrast, the U.S. Marine Corps lost upwards of about 23,000 men in brutal fighting in the Pacific.

This is for which Jimmy Stewart felt compelled to volunteer. 

 

 

* The DFC is the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in action. Stewart received two of them during his service in World War II. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue tsunami

When I woke up this morning, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

I mean, when I went to bed last night, several Democrats were doing pretty good in their midterm races and it looked as though they were going to take the House of Representatives. Great, I thought to myself. The Dems will have control of the congressional purse strings. Maybe now we can cut back on ICE, which is conducting a murderous and illegal war on American citizens. Maybe now we can cut back on arrogant defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who is conducting an illegal war on Iran.

I thought the Democrats had a chance to do well in the Senate. Maybe even take control.

What I didn't expect were the Democrats dominating in the Senate. When I woke up this morning and checked my computer, the Dems had won 55 seats with the possibility of adding another. They needed 51 to take control. It was a shocker.

The Dems needed 218 seats to win the House and had, in fact, won at least 228 seats by this morning with possibly more on the horizon. 

Holy smokes. Total control of Congress. While many of us were expecting – hoping for – a blue wave, we got a blue tsunami instead. We surely didn't see that coming.

But it spoke volumes. 

The dominance was a total repudiation of the Trump administration by frustrated American citizens who finally got a chance to voice their feelings about the chaos that seems to follow the convicted felon president. 

Clearly, Americans were pissed about the war with Iran, which was unilaterally unleashed by Trump without congressional approval. The war is the primary driver for the rise of gas prices since the first bombs were dropped.

Unilaterally imposed tariffs by Trump have generated an affordability crisis with increases in food, housing and automobiles, among other staples.

Many Americans are appalled by the administration's handling of immigration, especially with deportations of many who were either American-born citizens or legal workers. The murder of protestors Alex Pretti and Renée Good in January by ill-trained Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sparked condemnation of the administration.

Consequently, Hispanics and Blacks voted in large numbers, perhaps indicating that DEI is real – and a good thing – after all. 

Most Americans could hardly wait for the midterms to get here. It was our chance to voice our displeasure with the administration. It turned out to be a referendum not only on Trump, but on the feckless, MAGA-sized Republican Party as it tried to follow the blueprints of its disgraceful Project 2025.

Message sent. Tired of that decidedly unAmerican crap.

When the Democrats take control in January, investigations will take place. Expect the Epstein Files to finally reach your eyes in full and without redactions (as mandated by law). Expect accountability.

We the People have spoken. Hear us roar. 

 The way it was meant to be.

 

Blue wave

There's only 48 hours or so remaining before Election Day, and even though Kim and I voted early about a week ago, I can't wait.

I'm patiently waiting for the Blue Wave to appear. There has to be a way to put the brakes on the national disaster that has defined the Trump Administration, and voting might be it.

Which means Democrats and Independents have to turn out and make this an election that's too big to rig.

OK, OK. This is the midterms, not a presidential election. I know that. We're still stuck with the Antichrist for two more years. But if the midterms somehow put Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, it could help slow down convicted felon president Donald Trump from causing further damage to our democracy. And, Heaven permitting, if Democrats can also control the Senate, there will exist the power of accountability.

Accountability. That's what's been missing from the current crop of Republicans who control Congress and thereby allow Trump to govern so erratically. And unlawfully.

• We've seen staffing reductions across several several federal science agencies, including 20 percent reduction at NIH and 33 percent at NSF.

• There have been reductions in public health, including an increase in measles and a five-state cyclospora outbreak. There have also been cutbacks in ACA protections and in drug pricing provisions.

• The administration has hit civil rights hard, moving to ban federal and military DEI programs, restrict gender-affirming care and alter rules governing labor protections.

• And then there's the really offensive stuff, like the deportation of brown-skinned people under the guise of immigration control, even though many of those deported are legal American citizens. And how's that six-day war in Iran going? How about rising inflation and interest rates? Can you afford to buy a house? Or groceries? Did you vote for that?

• Those unauthorized vanity projects like the Trump ballroom or the triumphal arch of the reflecting pool, as well as decorating the White House in gold trim, are, in my view, decidedly unAmerican. Why are we paying for them? Who said he could do those things?

The list is endless.

I know the recent polling shows many Democrats in favorable positions heading down the stretch as an apparent Blue Wave is on the verge of cresting. I hope so. We need to turn a corner somewhere. Surely we are better than this.

But nothing is certain. A Blue Wave could all dissolve on Election Day, especially if the polling is wrong. The early voting numbers are encouraging, however, especially since Democrats historically tend to vote early.

It's in our hands. We the People...

 

 

Hit bottom yet?

Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate who is running for the governorship of Ohio against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, is 60 years old.

Acton was removed from her birth mother, Donna Arthur, by court order because of an abusive environment when she was 12 years old. That was 48 years ago. Nearly five decades. Arthur hasn't spoken to Acton since then.

Now, in a particularly revolting political moment, Ramaswamy has repeatedly circulated an online campaign ad featuring Arthur criticizing her daughter as both "a liar" and suffering from mental health issues. Arthur's ad also questions Acton's claim that her daughter lived in a tent as a child as a result of homelessness.

What the ad doesn't address is the fact that Arthur's husband at the time, Cledith Arthur, was indicted by a grand jury and charged with the rape and abuse of Acton and her brother, Phil Stearns, in 1978. I repeat – when she was 12. That's pedophilia as well as sexual assault. Sound familiar these days?

The stepfather skipped the state of Ohio, ran off to Pennsylvania with his wife, and never appeared in court. Donna Arthur, apparently chose living with her abusive child-raping husband than to support her own blood daughter.

Court records and news reports from 1978 support Acton's account of her childhood experience. FactCheck.org also found records that connect Cledith to the campground where Acton said she lived in a tent. So there's that.

In light of this, a desperate Ramaswamy, who trails Acton in recent polling, refuses to pull the ad and has doubled down on his assertion that Acton is a lying liar.

Ramaswamy even enlisted the support of convicted felon president Donald Trump – now there's a character witness for you – who told Ramaswamy to continue to run the ad because it was a "very powerful" ad and that it hit political paydirt.

This is coming from the guy who is mentioned thousands of times in the Epstein files. You remember the Epstein files, right? The files that were ordered to be released – totally unredacted – by a bipartisan act of Congress. It was signed into law by Trump himself.

And yet, here we are, sifting through the heavily redacted files that have been released while still waiting for more than a million remaining files – maybe even more – that haven't been released. What's the hold up? Or maybe we need to ask: What's the cover up?

Ramaswamy's attack ad on Acton is pretty vile stuff and it brings me to wonder where the hell this country's moral compass is located. In one of Trump's recent midterm campaign rallies, he backed Ramaswamy's view. The crowd behind him cheers idiotically. Wait, what? Cheering a rapist? An abuser of children?

Ramaswamy has Trump's support. He also has the support of vice president J.D. Vance. So the top two leaders of the Republican Party are backing the story of a woman who has turned her souless heart from the child who was raped and abused by her justice-skipping husband. And GOP followers are cheering this?

Where is that moral compass again? 

Oh, that's right. It's still falling. It still hasn't hit bottom. 

 

Early voted

It seems as though Kim and I had been waiting impatiently for the opportunity to vote early in this year's midterm elections.

More precisely, waiting forever. The waiting felt interminable, in the same way living in the current Trump administration feels interminable.

So Friday, after Kim got off from work, we made a beeline to the Davidson County Board of Elections to exercise our constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. Somewhat surprisingly, there was not the usual crowd of poll watchers, down-ballot candidates or party partisans in the parking lot to wade through.

But there was at least one. "Would you like a brochure to review the Republican candidates?" she asked. "No!" exclaimed the usually soft-spoken Kim in her loud, stop-annoying-me voice as we quick-stepped our way to the polls. After a moment or two passed, Kim turned to me. "You know what I should have said? I should have told her 'Hell, no!'" She snickered.

Kim's gentle Southern accent, which has captivated me for decades, made it sound more like "Hail, no!" I snickered, too.

When we got inside the door we were greeted by poll workers who reminded us that we needed to have our photo ID available. Kim already had her driver's license in hand. I pulled my wallet out of my pocket, flipped the flap that covers the license window in my wallet and ... my license wasn't there.

Wha...??? Where's my license? It's always there. What happened to it?

Panic set in. How can I vote? I was more concerned about not being able to vote than I was about going through the potential bureaucracy of replacing my license.

Kim was already in line. I sat off to the side, pulling every card out from every conceivable pocket in my wallet. Sweat was forming. My fingers were shaking. Where the hail is my license? It's got my Real ID on it. Without Real ID, I'm nobody. Apparently.

Kim was now checking in to vote. I gave my wallet one last search. And behold. There, behind the plastic window that's usually reserved for my license, there is another slip-in pocket that serves as a card holder, but not for display. Somehow, that's where my license was. I got in line.

And I voted. I voted against illegal wars. I voted against unilaterally raising tariffs. I voted against rogue law enforcement roaming our streets and murdering our citizens. I voted against rising inflation. I voted against rising prices. I voted against the chaos that has swallowed this nation. I voted against a convicted felon president having free reign to employ his twisted vision of American government with the support of a Republican controlled Congress. I voted against presidential corruption. I voted against tax breaks for the very rich.

I don't know how loud my voice is, but I felt good about voting. I always do. I never feel more American than at this moment.

On the way home, we tried to figure out how my driver's license got to where it ended up. Kim remembered that there was a routine license check on a side road in town about a month ago. I had to take my license out of my wallet, and when I put it back, I unknowingly slipped it back in the pocket behind the display window. Nobody could see it.

Oh, well. It was worth the panic. It all worked out.

I voted. Now it's your turn. 

 

 

The jab ... and the jab

Back in late September, Kim and I were wondering when the best time would be to go get our flu shots this year. We knew the time was approaching.

We haven't missed our annual shot in more than 40 years and we weren't about to miss it this year, either.

Then, a week or so ago, a news item popped up indicating that this year's flu strain was expected to be particularly virulent, and the best time to go for the vaccine would be ... right now, if not sooner. So Kim went ahead and lined up appointments for both of us at Lexington Family Physicians for this past Thursday.

Oh, and by the way, let's get the Covid shot, too.

So we did. Flu shot in the right arm, Covid jab in the left.

 While I was getting my injections Thursday, the first thing I thought of was all the antivaxxers who are so insistent on not protecting themselves or (more thoughtlessly) the herd from catching the flu or Covid.

Every once in a while, an antivaxxer will post some nonsense about how well the antiparasitic Ivermectin works and that the Covid-19 vaccine, by contrast, has caused the death of millions.

A simple Internet search quickly debunks many of those claims:

• Since the Covid-19 vaccine rollout began in 2020, more than 13.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That covers 70.5 percent of the world's population (8.5 billion) who have received at least one dose. If you noticed that more doses have been administered than there are people, remember the initial vaccinations were a multiple step process.

• Perhaps the more pertinent question would be how many lives have been saved by the Covid-19 vaccine? According to The Lancet Infectious Diseases hosted by the National Institute of Health (NIH), Covid-19 vaccines saved an estimated 14.4 million to 19.8 million lives from December 2020 to December 2021 – or a 63 percent reduction in total potential deaths.

In the United States, the Commonwealth Fund writes that independent modeling indicates over three million lives have been saved and tens of millions more have avoided hospitalization.

Just keep in mind that Covid-19 is a moving target and that the vaccination is aiming at a constantly changing virus, and thus requires unending vigilance and research. Consequently, the Covid-19 vaccine formula is updated every year to match the virus variants, much in the same way the flu vaccine is prepared.

• One of the antivaxxer assertions that tickled me claims that thousands of virologists supposedly have questioned the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine, but according to WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), just the opposite is true: Covid-19 vaccines are safe, effective and have saved millions of lives. Those suggesting otherwise are either deliberately lying or otherwise reporting false or conspiracy-based misinformation to support a political agenda. Laugh at them.

I've always been worried about influenza. Years ago, when I first learned of the great Spanish influenza outbreak in 1918, I was shocked to learn that an estimated 50 million to 100 million people died in that pandemic worldwide.

The virus claimed 675,000 American lives, more than the combined American combat casualties of World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Up until I reached my late 30s, I thought the flu was pretty much just a bad head cold. Silly me. But for nearly as long as Kim and I have been married, we've gotten our flu shots. And as far as I can remember, we've never gotten the flu.

I've never quite understood why some people avoid getting flu and Covid shots, especially when the evidence is clear that the vaccinations actually protect the community. I mean, it's my understanding that even if you don't get the shot and you don't display any flu symptoms, you can still carry and transmit the virus with a simple sneeze or touch. Why would you do that? It seems to me the object here isn't only to keep yourself safe, but also your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues as well.

I have this picture in my head of a young child crying real tears as she is being administered the flu shot. For some reason, I think this is a lasting image that many people carry into adulthood. I bet deep down folks opposed to vaccines just don't want to feel the needle's sting again. It's the only thing that even remotely make sense to me.

These shots didn't hurt. 

C'mon. Get your shots. 

 

 

 

 

 

Press here

When convicted felon president Donald Trump denied White House access nearly a week ago to journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, claiming that those news organizations only reported negative news from the White House, I wasn't particularly surprised.

Nor was I surprised when he seemingly defied a judge – District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump-appointed judge – ruled that the affected organizations had to have their access reinstated for at least 14 days as their legal challenge continued to turn.

Access was eventually restored Thursday afternoon by the temporary restraining order.

You knew it would be. Trump's endless quarrel with the media – particularly those outlets he considers to be left leaning and progenitors of a made-up term he labels "fake news", as an assault on the First Amendment. You know, the amendment that guarantees freedom of the press. It's why it's the very first amendment to the Constitution. It's first for a reason.

It's first because it's designed to provide accountability as a check to a president's questionable actions – like starting illegal wars, or illegally raising tariffs, or illegally denying due process. Stuff like that.

But what do you expect from a felon president who was granted almost total immunity for his actions by an obviously corrupt Supreme Court? What do you expect from a Republican-controlled Congress that has basically surrendered its first-branch-of-government (Article I) power and authority to the convicted felon president with hardly a whimper?

How does a convicted felon remain as president in a democracy?

I think the thing that surprises me the most is the support that Trump is receiving not only from the party-line Court, but from a segment of the electorate that tends to agree with his assessment of the media – that it creates fake news.

There's no such thing as fake news, just like there's no such thing as a deep state. Those are simply labels created by a paranoid government that feels as if its power is being threatened. Those that believe the government in power are called the base.

So who do you believe when you get your news? The main stream media? Podcasters? Bloggers? The government? Those who align with your own perceptions?

It's a tough call.

I spent my career in newspaper journalism and in my experience the professionals with whom I worked went out of their way to provide the truth. The thing is, what is the truth? Who perceives what truth is? Who defines what truth is? How is truth influenced by life experiences? Is truth even obvious? Is truth founded on evidence?

For me, truth is molded by my upbringing, by my values, by my logic, by my sense of what feels right and what feels wrong. That's what I rely on to determine what is true and what is conspiracy theory.

It's why I believe in vaccines. It's why I believe in the law. It's why I believe in the Constitution. It's why I believe what I see by my very eyes and ears.

It's why I don't believe in a convicted felon.