From The American Left History Archives (2008)- In Honor Of The Late Lynne Stewart (1939-2017)-Defend Lynne Stewart!

From The American Left History Archives (2008)- In Honor Of The Late Lynne Stewart (1939-2017)-Defend Lynne Stewart!

I think that I said it all back in 2006 and this can stand as a tribute to a courageous political woman and one hell of a lawyer, a people's lawyer-Frank Jackman (2017)


Ihave just added a link to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee. Please read about this case at that site. Also note that here appeal is coming up for oral arguments before the Federal Appeals Court this week (January 28 2008). Below is a commentary I made at the time of her sentencing in October 2006 that I repost here.

COMMENTARY

WE NEED LAWYERS WHO ARE FUSS-
MAKERS NOT RAINMAKERS
FREE CO-DEFENDANTS YOUSRY AND SATTAR


Well, the Bush Administration has finally got New York Attorney Lynne Stewart (DESPITE HER DISBARMENT I WILL CONTINUE TO CALL HER ATTORNEY) where they want her. Ms. Stewart had previously been indicted on the vague and flimsy charge of "materially" aiding terrorism by essentially, on the record presented by the government at the trial, providing zealous advocacy for her client, Sheik Rahman, who had been convicted in various terrorist schemes including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. At a trial in Federal District Court in New York City where the prosecution used every scare tactic in the post- 9/11 “War on Terror” playbook she was convicted. On October 16, 2006 she was finally sentenced on the charges. The federal judge in the case noting the severity of the crime but also the invaluable service that Ms. Stewart had rendered to the voiceless and downtrodden sentenced her to 28 months.

This sentence has been described as victory of sorts by Attorney Stewart and other commentators. The ever upbeat Ms. Stewart is quoted as stating that she, like some of her clients, could do that time “standing on her head”. Well, that may be, but the fact of the matter is that Attorney Stewart should not have been indicted, should not have been convicted and most definitely not sentenced for her actions on behalf of her client. Only the fact that the judge did not totally surrender to the government’s blatant appeals to “national security” issues and sentence her to the thirty years that they requested makes this any kind of “victory”. That joy over any lesser sentence could be considered as such is a telling reminder of the times we live in.

This case and the publicity surrounding it has dramatically warned any attorney who is committed to zealous defense of an unpopular or voiceless client to back off or face the consequences. The chilling effect on such advocacy, in some cases the only possible way to truly defend a client in this overheated reactionary atmosphere, is obvious. Moreover, the whole question of “material” aid to terrorism is a Pandora’s box for any political activist or even a merely interested non-political participant in any organization on the government’s “hit” list.

The government has the possibility of appealing the sentence to the Federal Court of Appeals so as of today October 18, 2006 the travails of Ms. Stewart are not over. Moreover, her conviction is still on appeal. From what I can gather in any reasonably quiet appeals court some of more blatant actions by the prosecution at trial would warrant, at minimum, a new trial if not the overturning of the conviction. Again, in these times such confidence may be unwarranted. I might add the “people’s lawyer” Lynne Stewart needs financial help to wage these new battles. Please consider sending a donation to the Lynne Stewart Defense Fund or to the organization I support- the Partisan Defense Committee- which will forward the donation. You can google either organization for addresses.

REVISED: NOVEMBER 2, 2006

ADDED NOTE: IN ANOTHER TELLING TALE OF THE TIMES THE INFORMATION THAT I RECEIVED FROM THE MASS MEDIA "NEGLECTED" TO INFORM THAT MS. STEWART'S ARAB TRANSLATOR , MOHAMED YOUSRY RECEIVED A 20 MONTH SENTENCE AND PARALEGAL ABDEL SATTAR RECEIVED 24 YEARS- NO THAT IS NOT A MISPRINT-24 YEARS. I MAKE UP OF THAT EGREGIOUS MISTAKE HERE. NEEDLESS TO SAY- FREE STEWART, YOUSRY AND SATTAR.

Shut Down Creech! Apr 23-29, 2017 - Stop the Drone Wars

 

12:46 PM

 

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Shut Down Creech! Apr 23-29, 2017 Mass mobilization to stop the Drone Warsshutdowncreech.blogspot.com Join us April 23 – April 29, 2017 at Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada for a 3rd national mobilization of nonviolent resistance to shut down killer drone operations in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan,Yemen, Somalia and everywhere.  Includes weeklong Camp Justice peace encampment. Sponsored by: CODEPINK: Women For Peace, Nevada Desert Experience, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Veterans For Peace & Courage to Resist Empire War Status Op-ed by Bob Meola, Courage to Resist. April 3, 2017 A lot of people miss Barack Obama because he smiled nicely while he dropped over 26,000 bombs on seven nations, last year. He was a much more pleasant personality.… Now, the McResistance, of the Democratic Party and the corporate media have their propagandists reviving the cold war and dangerously flirting with hot war with Russia. Americans are eating Russia Did It propaganda on a daily basis. It is the United States that has interfered with foreign elections and foreign governments everywhere and overthrown approximately five dozen of them since World War ll.… Read More Support War Resister Pvt. Ryan Johnson Imprisoned a decade after refusing crimes of his country Please support US military war resister Army Private Ryan Johnson by making a tax-deductible donation to his support fund, hosted by Courage to Resist. Doing so will help Ryan through the remainder of his prison sentence, and help Ryan and his wife Jenna relocate after his release. Donate today: https://couragetoresist.org/support-ryan Courage to Resist. March 23, 2017 We at Courage to Resist are reaching out to you to help imprisoned Army soldier Ryan Johnson and his wife Jenna. We’re helping them get on their feet upon Ryan’s expected May release from Miramar Brig in Southern California. Your support is critical to help them begin their next chapter. Ryan Johnson hasn’t gotten many easy breaks. He lost his father at the age of three. Growing up he would face years of abuse at the hands of a new stepfather. As a teen Ryan escaped into patterns of drug abuse, self-harm, and finally dropped out of high school. Now he endures insult of military imprisonment after literal injury serving the US armed forces. This pall of unfortunate circumstances doesn’t mean there isn’t light in Ryan’s life. He has persevered, with his compassion, kindness, and conscience intact. Read more at: https://couragetoresist.org/support-army-private-ryan-johnson/ Please donate today: https://couragetoresist.org/support-ryan

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When Humphrey Bogart Ruled The Crime Noir Night- "Dead Reckoning"

Dead Reckoning, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, 1947. 

Elsewhere in this space I have noted my love for film noir. The black and white photography, the story lines, the sparse and functional language. However, not all film noir is created equal and that is the case here. Humphrey Bogart was a classic match for the genre-tough, rugged, resolute, loyal and always loyal to a pal come what may. Such roles as Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep or Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon come to mind. Here he tries to milk that work without being a detective but with the same qualities as he tries to defend the honor of a fallen and maligned fellow soldier. Add Lizabeth Scott as the femme fatale who jams up the works and you would seemingly have the makings of a fine film. When the plot holds interest to a point there is a very strong sense of déjà vu from previous work. If you want to see the film noir master at work then see Bogie in The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon. Save this one for back up.

The Mayfair Swells Without The Music-Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant And Jimmy Stewart’s “The Philadelphia Story” (1939)-A Film Review

The Mayfair Swells Without The Music-Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant And Jimmy Stewart’s “The Philadelphia Story” (1940)-A Film Review 

DVD Review

By Associate Film Critic Alden Riley

The Philadelphia Story, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, directed by George Cukor, 1940

[A while back my “boss” in this space Sandy Salmon the long time film critic for the American Film Gazette who took over the chores here from the retiring Sam Lowell did a review of Howard Hughes’ production of the film adaptation of the successful Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur play The Front Page where he ruminated that he thought that he had already reviewed the film since the story line seemed very familiar. Sandy thought he was having a senior moment, thought maybe he had seen one too many films and had scratched his head over the plotline and message behind too many such efforts as well. As it turned out he had merely “confused” himself with the fact that he had previously reviewed His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell which was just the distaff perspective, Sandy’s word, of the same story, in other words a woman is the ace reporter who can’t give up the newspaper rat race when a big story hit her right in the face despite her avowal she was going for the white picket fence, dog, three point two children and a nine to five guy to bring home the bacon.

The same thing, that deja vu thing has happened to me recently, and I am far younger and less fragile than Sandy, when I reviewed a 1950s musical extravaganza called High Society starring vivacious Grace Kelly in her last role before becoming a fairy queen, princess, you know royalty, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Somebody, maybe Sandy, had shortly thereafter suggested that I check out the film to be reviewed below which except for the music is very much the same freaking story. Let me tell you this and be done with it this is the last time I will be reviewing this story line although somebody, not Sandy, says there is yet another version of this same sappy, soapy story line if I want to disturb my sleep futher than it already had been to no good purpose. Enough. Alden Riley] 

******

The Mayfair swells whether in plush Main Line Philadelphia (of which the very underrated novelist from nowhere Pottsville, Pennsylvania made a literary career out of detailing starting with Appointment At Samarra if you really want to get the load down on their work habits and sexual inclinations) or high end summer watering holes like Newport which a guy like Henry James would have had a field day “celebrating” if he hadn’t gone Anglo-exile, certainly have their problems. Whether or not they have musical abilities or not. Can croon to make the angels blush for their inadequacies or not. And no matter what time frame from the edge of the Great Depression which they, at least the survivors of 1929 had heard about in passing or in the dead of the red scare Cold War night as one film critic has described the 1950s. When I first saw this film I said to myself in some disbelief that I had already seen the film, or at least knew the story-line because I had just reviewed a Technicolor production of High Society with Grace Kelly (before she went off to be the real queen of Sheba or some kind of royalty in some fake kingdom by the sea), crooner Frank Sinatra (last reviewed in this space as a psycho hired assassin in Suddenly, no that is not right it was his well-deserved Oscar-winning performance in the film adaptation of James Jones’ From Here To Eternity) and crooner Bing Crosby (last seen probably in an un-reviewed Going My Way ) getting into mischief down in sunny Newport during the Jazz Festival.

That mischief, as here, involved the nefarious, yes, nefarious schemes of one Dexter Haven a high-end Mayfair swell tunesmith (figures for crooner Crosby) to get his ex-wife comely high-spirited and high-minded Tracy Lord (played by Princess Grace before she was Princess Grace) back in the fold. Problem: a big problem was that Ms. Tracy was getting ready to democratically marry a non-Mayfair swell the very next weekend. Here Dexter, played by cavalier Cary Grant, is nothing but a scheming high-end nautical architect slumming in the leafy suburbs of Main Line Philadelphia (you know among the Quaker-influenced old line gentry). Old Tracy, played by handsome and bright Katharine Hepburn, though is hard to get what with those high-spirited and high-mined ways that either version of the Mayfair swell assertive young Tracy held in hand. So the chase was on to see if old Dexter, or somebody could make Tracy see reason and dump this snobbish upstart who is looking to go up the social food chain by this timely marriage.                      

Enter Spy magazine in the person of frustrated writer Mike, played by Jimmy Stewart, who is hack writing for this scandal rag to keep the wolves from his door. In fact to have a door to keep them at bay with otherwise tossed out on the mean streets. This tainted high society marriage idea is meat for that publication. Mike, a hard-boiled, realistic, witty, sardonic guy is smitten, seriously smitten, by the upscale Tracy. Now the chase really was on. The three suitors spent the rest of the film jockeying for Tracy’s affections. Naturally the upstart guy she is supposed to marriage will be left at the altar and was a non-starter. Mike almost made the whole distance when Tracy had an epiphany after a drunken pre-nuptial reverie and was ready to go down and dirty to push Mike onto that serious writer’s career he longed for. But in the end, in the almost inevitable end among the Mayfair swells old-line class and breeding won out as Dexter’s anaconda strategy paid off.

Like I said I have already covered this plot-line. Enough. No mas. Even if it is a great story well- acted.        

On the 100th Anniversary Of The Russian Revolution-A SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC VIEW OF LEON TROTSKY

On the 100th Anniversary Of The Russian Revolution-A SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC VIEW OF LEON TROTSKY  

BOOK REVIEW

LEON TROTSKY, IRVING HOWE, HOLT,RHINEHART, New York, 1978

As readers of this space may know I make no bones about being an admirer of the work of Leon Trotsky (see archives). I also believe that the definitive biography of the man is Isaac Deutchers’ s three-volume set. Nevertheless, others have written biographies on Trotsky that are either less balanced than Deutscher’s or come at it from a different angle with a different ax to grind. Irving Howe’s, self-defined quasi-biography is a standard social-democratic take on Trotsky’s life and work.

The late Mr. Howe, long time editor of the political journal "Dissent" and a political 'godfather' of today's neo-conservatives, takes on the huge task of attempting to whittle down one of the big figures of 20th century history against the backdrop of that mushy social-democratic ‘State Department’ socialism that the left New York intelligentsia gravitated to in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. That standard response invokes admiration for the personality and intellectual achievements of Trotsky the man while abhorring his politics, especially those pursued as a high Soviet official when he was in political power. In the process Mr. Howe demonstrates as much about his weak ‘socialist libertarian’ politics grounded in a theory of Soviet ‘bureaucratic collectivism’ than a serious examination into Trotsky’s politics. There are some chasms that cannot be breached and this is one of them.

In classic fashion Howe sets up Trotsky’s virtues early. Thus he recognizes and appreciates the early romantic revolutionary and free-lance journalist in the true Russian tradition who faced jail and exile without flinching; the brilliant, if flawed, Marxist theoretician who defied all-comers at debate and whose theory of permanent revolution set the standard for defining the strategic pace of the Russian revolution; the great organizer of the revolutionary fight for power in 1917 and later organizer of the Red Army victory in the Civil War; the premier Communist literary critic of his age; the ‘premature’ anti-Stalinist who fought against the degeneration of the revolution; the lonely exile rolling the rock up the mountain despite personal tragedy and political isolation. However, my friends, Howe’s biographical sketches are about an intensely political man by one who was a political opponent of everything that Trotsky stood for. Thus, all the patently obvious and necessary recognition of Trotsky as one of the great figures of the first half of the 20th century is a screen for taking Trotsky off of Olympus.

And here again Howe uses all the points there are in the social democratic standard catechism. The flawed nature of Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution as applied to Russia in 1917 and also to later semi-colonial and colonial countries; the undemocratic nature of the Bolshevik seizure of power in regard to other socialist parties; the horrors of the Civil War which helped lead to the degeneration of the revolution; Trotsky’s recognized tendency as a Soviet official to be attracted to administrative solutions; his adamant defense of the heroic days of the Bolshevik party and the Soviet Union, even in its degenerated state, against all comers until the end of his life; his weakness as a party political organizer in the fierce intra-party factional struggles and later, in attempting to found new communist parties and a new international; and, the inevitable ‘crime of crimes’ for the social democratic set- his failure to politically bloc with the Bukharinite Right Opposition after its defeat by Stalin.

Of course the kindest interpretation one can make for Howe’s polemic is that he believes like many another erstwhile biographer that Trotsky should have given up the political struggle and become- what? Another bourgeois academic or better yet an editor of Partisan Review, Dissent or Commentary? Obviously Mr. Howe did not pay sufficient attention to the parts that he considered Trotsky’s virtues. The parts about the intrepid revolutionary with a great sense of history and his role in it. And the wherewithal to find a place in it. Does that seem like the Trotsky that Howe wrote about? No. A fairer way to put it is this. Trotsky probably represented the highest expression of what it was like to be a communist man, warts and all, in the sea of a non-Communist world. And that is high historical praise indeed.

In Boston- Tax Day Rally (4/15) Announces Speakers & Performers!

Tax Day Rally (4/15) Announces Speakers & Performers!

 

4/10/2017 4:23 PM

Cole Harrison

To  act-ma,   massaction-boston  and 4 others

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Tax Day Rally Saturday, April 15, 1:00 pm
Cambridge Common

Trump must release all his tax returns

Corporations and 1%ers should pay their fair share in taxes

Oppose the Trump/Ryan “Death Budget”

Support the People’s Budget

[image: Sign Up]
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Sg1K8E6d7%2F073Nra5fTYUmiGl3WB6Ui4>
*Info*: bit.ly/tax-day-info
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZmOf9c88SkNPbDlMLl6CGKg2kxKCZSLz>

*Sign up/ Volunteer*: bit.ly/tax-day-signup
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=fhwFkIU7M748yhEZoqS4oag2kxKCZSLz>

*If ever patriots were needed to address threats to the country, that time
is now.*

*Below we announce the speakers and performers who will highlight our Tax
Day Rally on Cambridge Common, Saturday, April 15!*

Trump’s lies, corruption and his new budget proposal pose a clear and
present danger to the nation

- *We Demand** that Donald Trump release his tax returns! *Expose
Trump’s conflicts of interests and business connections. As a billionaire,
he will directly benefit from his proposed tax breaks.

- *We Demand** that big corporations and people with very high incomes
pay their fair share of taxes. *Oppose the hundreds of billions of
dollars in even more “big, big” tax giveaways promised by the president.

Confirmed Speakers

Barbara Madeloni, President, Massachusetts Teachers Association

Cassandra Bensahih, EPOCA/ Jobs Not Jails

representative, New England Independence Campaign

Molly Hannon, Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants

Dan Fishman, political director, Libertarian Party of Mass.

Emily Kirkland, 350 Massachusetts

Rev. Vernon Walker, Pine Street Inn

Josh Hoxie, Institute of Policy Studies
Performers

Vocal Opposition
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=vo3BsusNIt%2Bs4H09tc9SlKg2kxKCZSLz>
(protest
chorus)

Loyal Opposition (patriotic Dixieland tunes)

Maurice Taylor
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=IsLZxhb3aAfTkgEecGPca6g2kxKCZSLz>
(spoken
word)

- *Oppose** Trump’s “Death Budget”*
- Stand up for our families: the president’s budget poses a mortal
threat to affordable housing, job training, senior programs, education,
public transportation, job safety, rural development programs
and services
of all kinds, and emergency food, housing and heating support.
- [image: Sign Up]
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=wdD%2BgP76ckLeaolCWZbc8Kg2kxKCZSLz>Oppose
the all-out attack on our climate, environment, and health that
lie at the
center of Trump’s budget proposal.
- Redirect Pentagon spending to meet our human needs. Instead of
increasing military spending by $54 billion a year—fueling wars,
lining the
pockets of the military-industrial-congressional complex, and
building “The
Wall”, fund critical domestic programs and our states and towns
- Support the *People’s Budget* as a positive alternative

*
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=kyxdhWOP0g5RpVEdZMKEEqg2kxKCZSLz>**
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=vv38UDWRZEtXArcnMoL5n2iGl3WB6Ui4>**Sign
Up to Attend and/or Volunteer!
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=mlqQCkxxCAdLMBjnZIg3j6g2kxKCZSLz>*
* Join us for a great gathering of patriots on Cambridge Common on April
15, the site where George Washington first took command of the army of the
Continental Congress to fight for our independence from empire and tyranny.*

*Note:* The Tax Day Rally was previously announced as taking place on
Boston Common and at Moakley Park. These have been changed! The correct
location is Cambridge Common. We apologize for the confusion.

*Donate!
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=pMEAPUJ2seIU4JhfPiqJ%2FKg2kxKCZSLz>**
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ERpW1v9ErgzQWxOrHhIyv6g2kxKCZSLz>*
We need your help so we can make Tax Day Rally as big as possible!

*Sponsors:* Budget for All Campaign info@budget4allmass.org • Massachusetts
Alliance of HUD Tenants michaelkane@saveourhomes.org • Massachusetts Peace
Action info@masspeaceaction.org • American Friends Service Committee
pshannon@afsc.org • New England Independence Campaign • 617-354-2169
<(617)%20354-2169>
[image: Cole Harrison]

For a People's Revolution

Cole Harrison
Executive Director

P.S. Don't forget to sign up to attend or volunteer at the Tax Day Rally!
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=uQ1%2Fwd1bHuI3ns3EtHZDI6g2kxKCZSLz>

--
Cole Harrison
Executive Director
Massachusetts Peace Action
11 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138
w: 617-354-2169
m: 617-466-9274
f: /masspeaceaction
t: @masspeaceaction
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From Veterans For Peace Stop Endless War • Build for Peace! Washington DC May 29-30

From Veterans For Peace      Stop Endless War • Build for Peace!    Washington DC May 29-30  

Stop Endless War • Build for Peace!

“War is a racket: A few profit, the many pay!” – Maj. General Smedley D. Butler, USMC

May 29 and 30, 2017  Washington DC

May 29, 2017:  Letters to the Vietnam Memorial Wall • Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

May30, 2017: Lafayette Park • White House

In response to President Trump’s outrageous budget proposal, including a $54 Billion increase for the Pentagon, VFP and other veterans groups will not be silent. Planning for this was started in response to VFP’s great statement about Trump’s Military Budget and our desire and responsibility as veterans, citizens and human beings to express our strong resistance to his policies and our commitment to find a better way to peace. 

The following activist VFP members have been involved in the planning: Matt Hoh, Mike Marceau, Mike Tork, Nate Goldshlag, Nick Mottern, Paul Appell, Ray McGovern, Roger Ehrlich, Sam Adams, Will Thomas, Bill Perry, Doug Rawlings, Ellen Barfield, Ellen Davidson, Gene Marx, Ken Ashe, Mark Foreman, Mike Ferner, Mike Hearington, Gerry Condon, Barry Riesch, Ann Wright, Barry Ladendorf, Bill Creighton, Brian Trautman, Dan Shea, Doug Ryder, Elliott Adams, Ken Mayers, Monique Salhab, Patrick McCann, Paul Appell, Vicki Ryder, Ward Riley and Tarak Kauff

Here’s the basic schedule:

Monday, May 29: Meeting at 9 AM at the Bell Tower, adjacent to the Wall for a briefing by Doug Rawlings and an opportunity to read some of this year’s letters; 10:30 AM, we deliver letters to The Wall; from 11:30-12 we proceed ½ mile to MLK Memorial; at 12:30 we begin a public reading of MLK’s Riverside Church address, his Beyond Vietnam speech. After the MLK event we gather back at the Bell Tower to engage with the public. At 6:30 PM we meet for a social gathering at Busboys & Poets.

Tuesday: May 30: 10 AM rally at Lafayette Park w/hour of short, uplifting speeches, then around 11 AM going to the White House fence to demand our meeting with the president. We will read the letter from Barry Ladendorf, President of VFP, who will have sent previously to the White House asking for a public meeting. We do not expect a response.  The letter is very good.

 We will have legal support and musical accompaniment. 

Housing in the DC area: http://washingtonpeacecenter.org/masshousing

For more information contact Tarak Kauff, VFP National Board Member takauff@gmail.com 845 679-6189 or 845 706-0187

For more information on the Letters to the Wall project contact Doug Rawlings  rawlings@maine.edu 207 500-0193

Hundreds of Veterans and allies gather at the White House December, 2010 to demand Peace

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Nate Goldshlag      nateg at pobox.com (replace at with @)
Arlington, MA       http://www.veteransforpeace.org

Out In The 1950s Crime Noir Night- Humphrey Bogart’s “The Enforcer”

Out In The 1950s Crime Noir Night- Humphrey Bogart’s “The Enforcer”


Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Humphrey Bogart’s The Enforcer

DVD Review

The Enforcer, starring Humphrey Bogart, Everett Sloane, Warner Brothers, 1951


I have been on something of a Humphrey Bogart tear of late. And when I get in the occasional tear mood I tend to grab everything of an author, singer, artist, or actor in sight. And hence this review of a very much lesser known Humphrey Bogart film, The Enforcer. If you are looking for the oddly charismatic Humphrey Bogart of To Have or To Have Not, Casablanca, The Big Sleep or even the lumpen thug, Duke Mantee, of The Petrified Forest then you will be disappointed. Here Bogie goes over to the other side of the law and plays a hard-working, tough (naturally) District Attorney who will stop at nothing to put the bad guys in this quirky police procedural.

Quirky because the film switches between the film's 1950s present and an earlier time in order to figure out why a woman was killed by her gun-for-hire boyfriend. As it turns out what Bogie and his police crew have stumbled into is the film version of Murder, Inc. a real phenomenon of professional killers who kill strictly for the dough, and no regrets. Except, as always, there is a weak link in the chain. That weak link is the that the woman killed by her boyfriend for seemingly no reason allegedly saw the psycho head capo of the murder for hire operation (played by Everett Sloane) kill a guy and he needed to cover it up. Was she the right woman? See the film and see if Bogie can figure things out. Figure the bad guys out as well as Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade could.

When Humphrey Bogart Ruled The Crime Noir Night- "Dead Reckoning"

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Humphrey Bogart’s Dead Reckoning.

Dead Reckoning, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, 1947.

Elsewhere in this space I have noted my love for film noir. The black and white photography, the story lines, the sparse and functional language. However, not all film noir is created equal and that is the case here. Humphrey Bogart was a classic match for the genre-tough, rugged, resolute, loyal and always loyal to a pal come what may. Such roles as Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep or Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon come to mind. Here he tries to milk that work without being a detective but with the same qualities as he tries to defend the honor of a fallen and maligned fellow soldier. Add Lizabeth Scott as the femme fatale who jams up the works and you would seemingly have the makings of a fine film. When the plot holds interest to a point there is a very strong sense of déjà vu from previous work. If you want to see the film noir master at work then see Bogie in The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon. Save this one for back up.

Views From The Left-U.S. Hands Off Syria! Join And Build The Resistance!

Views From The Left-U.S. Hands Off Syria! Join And Build The Resistance! 

Frank Jackman comment; 

We can be all over the place on our opinions about what is happening in Syria-who to support-or not support- but one thing is crystal clear we must oppose any United States war escalations. Those of us in the United States have a special duty to oppose the main enemy of the peoples of the world.    



Here is another view from the left -

Exclusion Redux-On The 75th Anniversary Of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order Rounding Up Japanese-Americans For The Concentration Camps

Exclusion Redux-On The 75^th Anniversary Of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order Rounding Up Japanese-Americans For The Concentration Camps

And just in case you think today's arguments are new here's a little government propaganda piece...

By Frank Jackman

   

History is sometimes a mischievous muse. It was 75 years ago that another President of the United States (POTUS in tweet speak), a wild man left-wing Democratic to hear the American-Firsters of that day tell it signed an executive rounding up another minority of the myriad that have passed through this country. And 75 years later … (hey you know) 

From The American Left History Archives (2008)- In Honor Of The Late Lynne Stewart (1939-2017)-Defend Lynne Stewart!

From The American Left History Archives (2008)- In Honor Of The Late Lynne Stewart (1939-2017)-Defend Lynne Stewart!

I think that I said it all back in 2006 and this can stand as a tribute to a courageous political woman and one hell of a lawyer, a people's lawyer-Frank Jackman (2017)


Ihave just added a link to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee. Please read about this case at that site. Also note that here appeal is coming up for oral arguments before the Federal Appeals Court this week (January 28 2008). Below is a commentary I made at the time of her sentencing in October 2006 that I repost here.

COMMENTARY

WE NEED LAWYERS WHO ARE FUSS-
MAKERS NOT RAINMAKERS
FREE CO-DEFENDANTS YOUSRY AND SATTAR


Well, the Bush Administration has finally got New York Attorney Lynne Stewart (DESPITE HER DISBARMENT I WILL CONTINUE TO CALL HER ATTORNEY) where they want her. Ms. Stewart had previously been indicted on the vague and flimsy charge of "materially" aiding terrorism by essentially, on the record presented by the government at the trial, providing zealous advocacy for her client, Sheik Rahman, who had been convicted in various terrorist schemes including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. At a trial in Federal District Court in New York City where the prosecution used every scare tactic in the post- 9/11 “War on Terror” playbook she was convicted. On October 16, 2006 she was finally sentenced on the charges. The federal judge in the case noting the severity of the crime but also the invaluable service that Ms. Stewart had rendered to the voiceless and downtrodden sentenced her to 28 months.

This sentence has been described as victory of sorts by Attorney Stewart and other commentators. The ever upbeat Ms. Stewart is quoted as stating that she, like some of her clients, could do that time “standing on her head”. Well, that may be, but the fact of the matter is that Attorney Stewart should not have been indicted, should not have been convicted and most definitely not sentenced for her actions on behalf of her client. Only the fact that the judge did not totally surrender to the government’s blatant appeals to “national security” issues and sentence her to the thirty years that they requested makes this any kind of “victory”. That joy over any lesser sentence could be considered as such is a telling reminder of the times we live in.

This case and the publicity surrounding it has dramatically warned any attorney who is committed to zealous defense of an unpopular or voiceless client to back off or face the consequences. The chilling effect on such advocacy, in some cases the only possible way to truly defend a client in this overheated reactionary atmosphere, is obvious. Moreover, the whole question of “material” aid to terrorism is a Pandora’s box for any political activist or even a merely interested non-political participant in any organization on the government’s “hit” list.

The government has the possibility of appealing the sentence to the Federal Court of Appeals so as of today October 18, 2006 the travails of Ms. Stewart are not over. Moreover, her conviction is still on appeal. From what I can gather in any reasonably quiet appeals court some of more blatant actions by the prosecution at trial would warrant, at minimum, a new trial if not the overturning of the conviction. Again, in these times such confidence may be unwarranted. I might add the “people’s lawyer” Lynne Stewart needs financial help to wage these new battles. Please consider sending a donation to the Lynne Stewart Defense Fund or to the organization I support- the Partisan Defense Committee- which will forward the donation. You can google either organization for addresses.

REVISED: NOVEMBER 2, 2006

ADDED NOTE: IN ANOTHER TELLING TALE OF THE TIMES THE INFORMATION THAT I RECEIVED FROM THE MASS MEDIA "NEGLECTED" TO INFORM THAT MS. STEWART'S ARAB TRANSLATOR , MOHAMED YOUSRY RECEIVED A 20 MONTH SENTENCE AND PARALEGAL ABDEL SATTAR RECEIVED 24 YEARS- NO THAT IS NOT A MISPRINT-24 YEARS. I MAKE UP OF THAT EGREGIOUS MISTAKE HERE. NEEDLESS TO SAY- FREE STEWART, YOUSRY AND SATTAR.

*From The "HistoMat" Blog- Mark Twain's Tribute To The Great French Revolution Of 1789

Click on the headline to link to a "HistoMat" blog entry on the great 19th century American novelist (who died one hundred years ago), Mark Twain, as he pays tribute to the power of the great French revolution of 1789.

Markin comment:

I have written previously on Mark Twain as the avatar of American literature in the 19th century. This post is just the frosting on the cake.

Remembrances of Fair Angelina-With Bob Dylan’s Farewell Angelina In Mind

Remembrances of Fair Angelina-With Bob Dylan’s Farewell Angelina In Mind

By Sam Lowell

Josh Breslin, the fairly well-known writer of articles and essays by conscious choice when he first started out in half the unread and coffee table small press journals, magazines and newspapers in America, recently retired from steady writing as a profession and thus given of later to memory thoughts of his youth as part of his plan to write a semi-memoir of his growing up times in the 1960s automatically thought about his big time love affair with fair Angelina. Well maybe Josh had not automatically been thinking about that affair but had been led to those thoughts by two prompts, one good, one bad. The first one, the good one, listening while working on his computer which had become also of late his favorite way to listen to music to one of the never-ending bootleg series CDs of Bob Dylan where a version of his Farewell, Angelina came on. The second, the bad one, very bad for several days, an obituary in the New York Times which reported that the once well-known former 1970s and 1980s movie actress and commercial spoke-person Angelina Farrell had passed away at 70 after a long battle against cancer. That Angelina, his Angelina, Angelina Donnelly, when he knew her before she went into the movies and changed her name was that big affair from his youth that he was drifting back to in memory time. Sad day, sad days.

Looking back from grim memory think Josh thought it funny that probably in no time but the middle 1960s when all hell was breaking loose but all kinds of possibilities were also opening up that he would have run into a woman such Angelina. Josh had met her, met vivacious Angelina Farrell, when he decided to hitchhike west to see what all the commotion was about in the summer of love, 1967 version, just after he had graduated from high school and was aimlessly wandering around his hometown of Olde Saco up in Maine waiting to start college at State U in the fall. That decision had come about as a result of his having run into a wild man “hippie” in full regalia, long hair, pony tailed, wispy beard, the fate of many a youthful male, blue jeans, Army jacket, and bottomed off by roman sandals. No, bottomed off by that wild look Josh was beginning to see on more and more young people which indicated too many long nights around a corn cob pipe full of marijuana, a bong bowl of hashish, a rolled dollar bill of cocaine, or, more probably a Dixie cup full of acid-etched Kool-Aid, you know LSD. He, Lenny Josh thought his name was but don’t hold him to those memory names, had just gotten back from the Coast and had been visiting his grandmother in Portland who told Josh about the doings out there and about what was expected to happen that summer. He was intrigued, so intrigued that he gave up, to his father’s anger, a job working as a janitor in the textile mill where his father had gotten him a job for the summer. Packed up soon after meeting that wild man “hippie” (a term not widely used in 1967 but very descriptive now) and started hitchhiking west to save precious money needed for tuition in the fall, although he lied to his parents and told them he was taking the bus out when they tried to argue him out of such a forlorn adventure.

Of course as anybody who had read Jack Kerouac, the “king of the beats” author of On The Road who got many youth started, well, on the road as Josh had earlier that summer, could tell you the vagaries of the road, of hitching then, maybe now too if any ill-advised person still does that form of travel, was that you would not necessarily get to where you wanted to go in a straight line but where whatever ride on whatever road you hitched and accepted took you. That vagary had been how Josh wound up at Jimmy Jack’s Diner on the outskirts of Steubenville flat up on the Ohio River after being left there by a good guy trucker, Denver Slim (who was neither from Denver, nor slim, go figure) who had originally planned to drive directly to Chicago with his load but had changed his mind when he decided he needed to see his girlfriend who lived in Steubenville (his wife lived in Toledo but that was another story). So Jimmy Jack’s outside out of the way southeastern Ohio it was on that first run out to search for the great blue-pink American West night as another writer he would meet out in San Francisco put the matter. Yes, nowhere backroad truck stop Jimmy Jack’s Diner was where he met Angelina Donnelly from Muncie out in the wilds of Indiana who was serving them off the arm at the diner when he wandered in to grab a quick bit, a bowl of beef stew in the days when he ate meat which had the virtue of being cheap, hearty, in the way diner food was always hearty, and filling, before heading on the road again.      

Something about her as she served him his beef stew well before other patrons who were impatiently waiting for their cooling meals on the pick-up counter, something about him with that sly grin spoke to her,  spoke to both almost immediately of attraction. Angelina, young, pretty, very pretty in a Midwestern way, a way as he would later put it as fetching to others when she began to appear in films and commercials. Not the drop dead ice queen first female lead who would never disturb your dreams because you could never get through the layers, layers of every possible description to block your way, but the one you think about later, think sexual thoughts about, think about how if you played your cards just right you could probably find yourself under silky sheets. The kind of woman too who once she got you on her wavelength whatever ever she was selling you would buy whether you needed it or not just because she had that effect on you. A look to make a film career out of, no question although such thoughts never passed her lips. The attraction for her, just out of classes in business school, the Bancroft Business School, for the summer in Muncie and looking for “adventure” decided to head East to see what was up there was that he was her very first “hippie,” the first one that she had seen in  person and he seemed as she put it later “nice.” She had heard about such creatures, and been warned away from such evil by her parents and friends back in Muncie, but she was curious, very curious about this example of the new breeze the newspapers and magazines were talking about.                    

So they made a match. Hit it off that very night when after circling each other all day as he took his sweet time finishing his meal and several cups of coffee to make the moments last  they “made the roof shake to the heavens” in the cabin up the road from the diner where Angelina was staying with their love-making. Later on good days, on the sunnier days of their relationship they would tenderly refer to that fresh green lust. It was thus not surprising then when a few days later after Josh had worked the dishes at Jimmy Jack’s to grab some quick dough and Angelina worked double shifts that they headed out on the highway together to see what they would see. They had first headed south to Prestonsburg down in coal country Kentucky to see a cousin of hers and then began heading west again. They had their ups and downs on the road, getting short and long rides, depending on where they were let off. (In those days guys travelling with a young woman, a fetching woman, would grab rides much more easily than if alone although the duration might still be long or short depending on the driver’s destination.

That plan westward so Angelina could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time worked out okay for a while, they had fun meeting groups of fellow spirits on the road, spent an interesting week hanging out in the rustic campsite with a bunch of “freaks” where Josh stayed dope high all week (Angelina a true daughter of the Midwest just then still hearing those warnings against the devil’s doings from her parents in her head). They made great tumbling love, sex which Angelina did not heed her parents’ warning about, praise be, as she was curious, willing and resourceful in that regard. But as the weeks went by, as they were making no serious headway west, as she could not wash her hair daily, as she became less enamored of the small tent they had purchased in Louisville for nighte when they had no other way to sleep Josh could sense that Angelina was not built for the road, was built for other kinds of adventures, was built for comfortable beds and silky sheets.

The whole thing started to come to a head during one tough rainy stretch in Moline when they were forced by the continual bad weather to grab a cheapjack motel. That stuck situation strained their good feelings toward each other as Josh got more into being “on the road” the farther away he got from Maine and the less Angelina cared about seeing the wide Pacific. After the rains stopped in Moline they decided to give it one more try but by the time they got to Neola out in Iowa, got to Aunt Betty’s Dinner where Angelina was working for a few days to make some money and old Aunt Betty, a real Aunt Betty began to work on her to go home, the die was cast. The way they left it, left the situation between them Angelina would head back to school and meet Josh who had along the way decided that he would postpone going to college for a year to “find himself” somewhere out on the Coast during her winter break. Josh headed west mostly alone although he had a wild time with some serious freaks out in Joshua Tree channeling the ghosts of ten thousand years before Apache warriors (under the influence of a bunch of eaten peyote buttons). Several weeks later he wound up near La Jolla north of San Diego joined up as part of a traveling caravan, a yellow brick road converted school bus caravan heading north toward San Francisco where the summer of love was going full blast.      

Josh had thought that Angelina’s decision to go back to school and then meet him out West during winter break was so much wishful thinking but in December Angelina got a message to him through some people he was staying with outside of LA in a commune that she was coming out to see him as planned. Josh met her in car rented by one of the people who was staying at the commune at the LA airport and they headed up the Pacific Coast Highway to an ocean campsite near Point Magoo which Josh had picked out specifically to show her the ocean. There they frolicked in the ocean in which Angelina, not knowing the wild ways of the waters almost drowned in a riptide she was so happy to be in the water, make great love almost as great as that first night back in Steubenville where they made the roof shake. Angelina had on their second night out there also smoked dope for the first time. Josh said he would always remember that star-filled moon-filled night with the ocean waves crashing just beneath them when they seemed as one, that they had shared a Zen moment even if neither could have articulated their feelings exact way. (She said she too would remember that night and occasionally when he thought about her and that night over the years and specifically after he had read of her passing Josh wondered if she did later when she wound up living most of her life in  Southern California not fifty miles from Point Magoo.) But like a lot of things in life, lots of things having to do with timing, with the times, with things that tugged at your whole freaking life parents, home, who you were and how you had been brought up Angelina was not ready to live a nomad’s life and so they departed with some remorse but also knowing that they would not see each other again. 

A couple of years later after Josh had had his fill of the road and the nomadic life and was back in Maine in school at State U he saw a movie advertisement on campus with a photo of  somebody named Angelina Farrell who looked very much like his Angelina. He went to the theater and couldn’t believe that there she was on screen playing a secondary role but he could hardly keep his eyes off the screen whenever she was in a scene. The story that all the film magazines had when he checked later was that Angelina had gone back to California from Muncie a few months after she had left Josh and had stayed at the commune where he had been staying (he was drifting north to Oregon heading toward Alaska at the time). One of the communards was a budding director, Lance Lane, who saw something in Angelina of film star quality (that fetching and that sexually thoughts stuff about downy billows that Josh mentioned earlier which Josh had sensed when he first saw her behind the counter of Jimmy Jake’s in her white uniform and had his lusts up) and cast her in one of his low budget independent films that an assistant producer for one of the big movie companies saw one night and called Lane up to find out who the hell she was. And the rest was history. She has a decent career playing second and third leads and when that dried out she did even better as an ad spokesperson for everything from Ford cars to female products.       

Their paths never crossed again although a couple of times when Josh was on the West Coast on a story he thought to try to get in touch but figured that the studios would block his way as just another Angelina Farrell fan and blow him off. Eventually he heard that she had married a studio executive, had a couple of kids, and gone into retirement, and so his time had passed. After reading of Angelina’s death something gnawed at Josh though. Then he finally figured it out. With three unsuccessful marriages under his belt, years of alimony, child support, and a mountain of debt for multiple college educations for his kids which almost broke him Josh wondered whether if he had had the sense that God gave geese he had grabbed Angelina with both arms and said the hell with the road back then that would have changed the course of his, and her, life. With that thought in mind he played Dylan’s Farewell, Angelina one more time.