Fourth of July—Part 1 (129,545 dead Americans from Covid-19)

Today is Tuesday, but I am making it Day One of my 4th of July celebration 2020!

Happy Land of the Free! Home of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!

This year has been unlike any other in my 70 years.

The reality of life with this pandemic as my frame of reference is far from my wildest previous expectations of how life might change from any community or societal disaster like earthquake or tornado or flood.

The Great 2020 COVID-19 disaster brings with it suffering and death in horrific proportions, including the end of life at this point for 129,545 in this country alone! 

In the world more than 500,000 have died so far from 10,000,000 COVID cases. 

God help us.

119,000 dead Americans courtesy of Trump!

Friday update...

Bad week for Trump due to Supreme Court decision favoring Dreamers

RIP June 6

June 6 marks the anniversary of the 1944 D-Day invasion of France by America and her allies to begin the overthrow of Hitlers’s madness.
My Dad was part of that invasion as a 22 year old draftee soldiering as a member of the infantry inserted into the battle by Army gliders, known for high mortality. He was one of the few survivors after the glider crashed into pine trees to land. Virgil Warn fought for three days before being wounded by artillery shrapnel that left him disabled the rest of his life.
I tell my story, which is my Dad’s story, to illustrate the importance of June 6 in my life
Other reasons why my life history makes notable June 6:
June 6 is the birthday of my show biz mentor Gil Cates. From 1981 until his death in 2011, he and I became goombas, as he described it. For me, he enabled me to become chief PR guy for the Directors Guild of America, hired me to be his PR guy while he became the all time leader in producing Academy Awards Oscar shows and also hired me to be his PR consultant on retainer to UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV when he became its new Dean. I owe Gil a lot.
June 6 is also the anniversary of the last time I had sex. It was 1991 and she was my third and final wife. Debbie was also an only child and had been married a couple of times when our strong sexual chemistry in the fall of 1988 led us to get married in Palm Springs early in 1989. Debbie told me she was pregnant and since I was 39 with two ex-wives, I was happy about the idea of finally starting a family. I have vivid memories from the day we married, as it turned out to be my third and last wedding. Debbie lied to me about being pregnant then faked a miscarriage when her father died in September. She lied about getting rid of my favorite dog while I was out of town. She lied about much more over the years we remained together until she left me on July 31, 2000. No sex was just one of the reasons she left. Last year, I googled her out of curiosity because we had not talked since before 911. I was truly shocked to discover her obit from early in 2006. RIP Deborah Hunt of Pitman, New Jersey.
June 6 is also the anniversary of the death of Robert Kennedy in 1968. Bobby was my personal political hero. When he was killed, it changed everything. And it changed nothing....

This year June 6 adds the murder of George Floyd to my life’s reasons to remember the date.
#BlackLivesMatter

Welcome to June Gloom 2020!

June Gloom this year has a whole new meaning!
I have always been a fan of June Gloom in the past. Cloud cover before afternoon burn off is a welcome time of year because I don’t like the heat.
2020 has redefined June Gloom to include Covid-19 deaths and racist cops exposed and protests with thugs co-opting the outrage in the finest American criminal tradition of exploiting opportunities while hiding in plain sight amongst real protestors.
The straw that stirs our national toxic cocktail is none other than the guy who got elected to unite us but has never even tried to embrace that mandate; instead, substituting his innate instinct to divide and conquer.
 For the past five years, that man has displayed his very public attempt at the destruction of American values, ideals and core objectives through intentional malfeasance as well as  stupid actions and words!
I have evolved from a Celebity Apprentice watching voyeur of his unbridled egomania as a kind of rubber necker to his outrageous statements into a wide eyed concerned citizen witnessing mental illness harnessed to Presidential power.
With the world crumbling around him, our modern day Nero this morning fiddles through an hour long TV defense of his policies on all of it.
Clearly, as a world master salesman his Willi Loman pitch fashions a hyperbolic pile of word salad filled with his rose colored economic analysis. Today’s unexpectedly strong employment numbers have given him all the fuel he needs to tout his positive narrative of the great job he has done keeping American deaths to ONLY 110,000 plus!

Just the thought of President Joe Biden makes me smile away my June Gloom!

#Biden2020

And now...THIS!

Americans are many things by nature.
Racist is top of list.
And so our instinct teaches us to be polite but avoid excessive unnecessary interaction.
Which has worked out mostly okay for me.
Until now.
Daily scenes of young black looters fleeing with several boxes of Air Jordan’s and clothes and jewelry and more on live TV bring complicated reactions from me. First, it is just the kind of chaotic dystopian daily news cycle I remember from 1968 and 1969 with one days horror and outrage besting the last one.
Then it was Vietnam, Charlie Manson, assasinations etc
Now it is Covid Quarantine, police overreach, unemployment blues and more.
Then I was 20. Now I am 70!
Life is different now.
Each new day is a gift from God. Thank you Lord!
I am sorry that I took so much in life for granted when I was young. It never occurred to me that I would not live forever, however long that was!
With the exit clearly in sight, I find myself absorbing news events as they are without automatically rating or assessing their utility. I pretty much ascribe to the Doris Days motto: “Que ser a ser a”
What will be will be!
It is what it is!
What has changed most is my frame of reference. I no longer think long term, like in a dream.
No more mental pictures of me with a family being successful and happy. Somehow.
I am left with the gift of knowing some dreams are never really meant to be. With the warm memories of the short glimpses my life gave me.

Onward and upward with the arts!

Onward and upward with the arts!


#RIPGeorgeFloyd

100,651 dead Americans since March!

Today we moved into six figures on Americans dead since March!
And it goes on...
Trump is Hell bent to raise that number as high as possible by leading his Trump parade maskless into a return to his good old days of 2019 by keeping blinders on to facts he cannot successfully bully into submission. Like a little kid believing no one can see him if he closes his eyes.

 My guy Joe Biden has already become our REAL President with his perfect statement noting the 100,000 milestone while sharing the sense of loss to everyone impacted.

Thanks for that, Joe!

#Biden2020

MemorialDay2020-Final Part

Today is Memorial Day, our annual attempt to express gratitude for the military service of our fellow men and women. In years past, it has been our entry into summer featuring parades and cookouts.
2020 is different.
Social distancing is now our new normal. Face masks save people around us from our germs.
Covid-19 is the enemy that has now killed nearly 100,000 Americans since February.
The scale of this pandemic has given all of us a new standard for disaster.
Temperatures above 90 outside is a reminder of what summer means. This year, however, has no baseball so that’s no good.
Quarantine in my bedroom for three months has advanced my already eager trend towards online interaction as an agreeable substitute for face to face human contact. Facebook,Twitter,AOL,Gmail,you tube,Netflix,amazon Prime, Hulu,and now zoom,webex,Skype,periscope are my daily companions. Along with eight ball pool, words with friends and now blogging this journal filling my days with activity, I am generally OK with what life has become. One benefit of surviving to be 70 years old has proven to be greater patience for accepting life lessons without mashing myself in doubt or despair. Something about my altered acceptance without whining of life’s challenges beyond my control.
Life offers us a wild ride filled with blessings and tough breaks.
My goal now is to be grateful for the former while trying to avoid the latter.

#MemorialDay2020

Welcome to the summer of 2020!

Buckle up boys and girls, we are in for a bumpy flight!