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Showing posts from February, 2024

Black History Month- James Baldwin vs William Faulkner.....Juano Hernandez and Shelby Foote

  February is Black History Month and as sure as the Earth turns, Black writer and thinker, James Baldwin becomes popular. Baldwin was a very homely, frail, towering Black American intellectual. Black and Gay…..he was driven from his Baptist roots ( his Father was a Minister) into exile in France. From there, he launched jeremiads against American racism, most notably in his book of essays, THE FIRE NEXT TIME. One of the things that this Blogger finds most intriguing about Baldwin is his hatred of one of this Blogger’s favorite American novelists, Nobel Laureate Mississippi white supremacist, William Faulkner. " Faulkner told the New York Herald Tribune that he longed  for the return of the “benevolent autocracy” of slavery , in which “Negroes would be better off because they’d have some one to look after them.” In 1956,  he told a journalist that if the Federal government used troops to enforce integration in the South he would do as his Confederate great-grandfather had done bef

BLACK HISTORY MONTH- Sugar Ray Robinson Throws The Greatest Single Punch EVER

   In the “old days”, every Friday night, there was an hour of boxing, on national television, on NBC; sponsored by Gillette. That hour of the week was the only hour in the week, in which this Blogger’s mother allowed his father to smoke a cigar in the home. He would sit with his sons and his stogie, every Friday night, talking about his favorite fighter, Jack Dempsey. He would debate the validity of the “Long Count” well into the night; the Long Count was when Dempsey knocked down Gene Tunney for over 14 seconds, but was denied the knockout because he did not follow the then new rule and go to a neutral corner. Jack Dempsey had a restaurant in Manhattan then; once a month this Blogger’s father would go over from Brooklyn and have dinner there, discussing the Long Count.  This Blogger’s father was fixated on the Long Count. A viewer could see real reality every Friday night; one could see Emile Griffith pound Benny Paret to death, on national television, for calling him(Griffith) a Spa

Why George Washington Was "capo dei capi" Among the Founding Fathers, the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny

     "capo dei capi"- a Mafioso term, boss of bosses- One of the puzzling enigmas about the Founding Fathers (Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Adams, Madison)  is why they deferred to Washington? He was not a particularly great general; in retrospect he seems dull, pedestrian and aloof(his best friend was his slave). He literally botched the New York campaign against Howe...why wasn't he fired then? Or at Valley Forge? Why did they need him? Why would the Revolution need an incompetent General? He certainly was not a Cromwell.....but then again, maybe he was. The Revolution needed Washington because he was a mean s.o.b......in fact, this Blogger believes, he was the meanest of all the Founding Fathers. They deferred to him, because they were afraid of him. The incident revealing Washington's meanness  was the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny.  There was a mutiny among the Pennsylvania troops; Washington crushed it, without too much effort. He then ordered the court martial of th

A “Bloody Assizes” Judge Turns the Trumps into Folk Heroes, 2024 JOADS of THE GRAPES OF WRATH

2024 America is in decay and disarray; because of one simple fact, Liberals do not know how to govern their fellow Americans. They are so righteous, so, self righteous that they make Psychopathological Decisions, Decisions without consciousness of the consequence of said decisions. In 1685, the Prince Harry of his day, the Duke of Monmouth led a failed rebellion against the King. of England.  What followed was the “Bloody Assizes”, in which the defeated were prosecuted with such a ferocity that it exceeded justice, or even a reckoning. The Judges were punitive on steroids. Hundreds of defeated rebels were hung; thousands were shipped off into slavery in the colonies. The "Bloody Assizes" were so mean spirited, so without mercy, or common sense that the King was over thrown three years later, in a "Glorious" Revolution. “Bloody Assizes” became a byword for punitive legal judgments, bordering on psychopathological madness. In 2024, a Liberal New York Judge went “Blood

Reflections on the Fani Willis Disqualification Hearing in Georgia

One of the unyielding pleasures,  in viewing MSNBC commentary on the Fani Willis disqualification hearing, is MSNBC’s fanatical belief that strong, independent, educated, flamboyant Black women cannot be corrupt. Growing up in Brooklyn, amid Mafioso, one learns again   and again that no race, or gender, or educational level, or religion is immune from corruption. Corruption is an equal opportunity disease, like the plague. Fani Willis is the strong, Black,  independent, female District Attorney, in Fulton County, Georgia; who loves all cash transactions. Who knew strong, Black, independent female District Attorneys have the same aversion to paper trails, as Mafioso and drug cartels. Ms. Willis, in her capacity as District Attorney, brought a case against former President Donald Trump and a host of his associates, for trying to steal Georgia’s electoral votes in the 2020 election, in a most clumsy fashion. The case should have been a slam dunk; for President Trump was on  tape asking fo

Readers Asked: Gerry Maxey Choices of Films to Watch on Valentine's Day

  America in 2024 is a strange, thread bare society;  which believes, that because you have an opinion or skill in one field, you are omniscient in all fields. Because this Blogger believes William Tecumseh Sherman, fresh from an insane asylum,  was the best General of the American Civil War, Readers have asked him to suggest which films to watch on Valentine’s Day. And since this Blogger is a 2024 American; he cannot limit his opinions to General Sherman. Here Goes- 1-     RANDOM HARVEST- THE BEST ROMANCE FILM EVER- a 1942 Black and white film, starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson. The plot is totally BONKERS…..and yet, it uplifts the power of devotion in love. 2-     PERSUASION- This Blogger once knew a bona fide natural born killer. He was a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War. His favorite all time novelist was Jane Austen. Why? In his words  “ She is the greatest novelist who has ever lived who believes in happy endings; therefore, by default, she is the greatest novelist ever.”