Roy Wilkins

Roy Wilkins was a Civil Rights leader from the 1930's through 1970's.  He held various executive positions in the NAACP.  If there was a strike like the Pullman Porters or a march or some kind of a Civil Rights demonstration, he was there.  Roy Wilkins was also a reporter and later Editor of various publications and if anyone was needed to testify before Congress, talk to a President or go on TV to speak about dismantling Segregation and promoting Civil Rights, he was the guy.  So, back in the 1960's if you turned on one of the many News/Discussion programs on a Sunday Morning, he'd be one of them.  One other little fact, by the 1960's, Roy Wilkins lived in the Borough of Queens.  The Borough of Queens is home to the two major airports of New York City and if you had to travel around as much as he did, it's the perfect place to live.

Now Queens in the 1960's is much more rural place than it is now.  Queens was originally populated by farms, cemeteries and golf courses but by 1960's it was a place of private homes and garden apartment complexes.  There were no big buildings like you might see today as you travel through on your way to and from the airports.  There were still a lot of empty spaces and we even had a few farms in the eastern part of the Borough.  And, the world is a different place back then.  There is no cable TV or internet, no Tik Tok, no social media.  There is no color TV.  It's all in black and white.  Now in New York City we had six channels, but other parts of the country, only had three channels or even less.  So, the number of people who are on TV are much smaller group than now.  And, you never see in real life, anyone who you see on TV.  At least not in Queens.  Maybe if you live in Manhattan, you'd see some actors or TV people on the street but I lived in Queens.

So, this is like 1966 and I'm walking up Union Turnpike one night and I'm doing that because I'm 16 years old and when you're 16, you have a lot on your mind, like playing ball and girls and school and stuff that bewilders your little 16 year old mind and I'm probably talking to myself too. And, Union Turnpike is deserted with hardly anyone walking on the street and here and there a passing car, maybe.  And, then I see this guy walking towards me and as he draws close, I see he's Roy Wilkins.

Now like I said, you don't see people who you see on TV in real life and Roy Wilkins is the first person I've ever seen, who I've seen on TV.  And, as we draw close he smiles and says.  "Good Evening."  And, I'm like really stunned because I'm 16 and I know what's going on in the world and he's famous, so at first I can't even speak.  But I manage to find my voice and we exchange pleasantries like two neighbors and then we go our separate ways.  And, I'm also struck by how wise and dignified he is.  I mean if you look at the pictures of him you can see it but up close and personal it was even more so.  He looked like what the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should look like but usually doesn't.  Or a guy who you would climb a mountain to ask about the meaning of life, would look like.  It was far more than him being older or the white hair.  It was something that went deep, soul deep, some intrinsic quality.  It was impenetrable, indominable.

Now think for a moment of all the insults and the names and the vitriol that must have been directed towards him, in his life.  Like I said he's at the forefront of every major demonstration or march that the Civil Rights movement ever had.  He didn't have to imagine someone might have said something racist, those people were right there, up close, personal and in his face.  He must have heard every racial epithet anyone could ever think of, hurled at him.  And, yet there he was in his mid 60's seeing some young kid, talking to himself and he probably remembered being 16 and talking to himself and he's kind, congenial, wise, neighborly and like I said, he had that dignity, that impenetrable, indominable dignity.

And, this brings us to an old adage and the moral of the story here which is.  You can't disrespect a man who respects himself.  And, no matter what insult or invective or trash someone tried to heap upon Roy Wilkins head, it never made a dent.

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Somebody Said... OMG!

We've sort of been wondering why everyone gets so upset over somebody said... whatever.  We mean certain people in the government have spent all kinds of time, that we pay for, to stop certain people and certain things from being said.  Either on the TV, radio, the internet in general and social media in specific.  And, the Barons of Social Media have assigned all manner of personnel, spent God knows what amount of time with all kinds of algorithms to censor what someone, might say.  We wonder about this because %99.9999999 and we'll stop with the 9s here as we have just so much room for the rest of the column but you get the picture.  Almost everything, anyone, ever said, in the history of the human race, is all forgotten almost as quickly as it was spoken or written down and read. Perhaps something lingers for a few hours in your mind or even a day but the rest of it?  Oh yes, there are famous quotes but that's just it, they are famous because they hit on something that is intrinsic to our existence and has meaning.  And, well, you can put all those quotes in a single volume.  Measure that against the rest of the voluminous verbiage that comes out of the rest of us, all of which just goes... poof.  Unless we're wrong and you can remember what you said last Tuesday.  Or remember what most anyone else said, last Tuesday.

Oh yes, people get offended.  Certain words, certain phrases, certain subjects OMG, no this is double OMG!! if there ever was.  And, as all our regular readers know double OMG!! is the absolute end of it all.  But when people get offended and we're not entirely sure what happens when this happens, as we have to strike whatever offended from the record, least anyone hear it, or read it and get offended!  But what happens?  We mean, if they happen to hear it or read it and get offended?

And, does anyone, ever, recover from being offended?  Or does it haunt them all their days and then they die?

BTW, who in their right mind has the expectation of getting up tomorrow morning, and then going through the rest of their days without being offended?  To you, whoever you are, we say, good luck.

We can think of many answers as to why somebody gets so upset over what someone said or might say  but then we could be wrong, God forbid.  We might just be tilting at windmills too and besides in this journalism thingy, we're just supposed to ask the questions.

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Scratching Our Heads

With people finding classified files all over the place, we're sort of left scratching our heads.  We know this is a great occasion for people locked in the seemingly never ending, vitriol laced, exhortation of verbiage that seems to pass for discussion nowadays, to scream.  "Your guy did it too!"  And, now we can have all kinds of investigations which usually lead nowhere and result in well... not too much.  But before all that unfolds, we're bewildered by one thing.  Sort of like detective Columbo in the old TV series of the same name.  And, that is, who has paper files anymore?  We don't?  Do you?  We mean this is the 21st Century and you can pay all your bills, buy a car, a home, bitcoins, get rich, go broke, write novels and never hit the print button.  And, you don't have to put pen to paper for an actual, old style signature either.  Your face, your eyeball or your fingerprint will suffice.  Yet here is the most powerful, sophisticated government in the history of humanity and people are walking around with paper files marked CLASSIFIED and TOP SECRET, like they used to do in the old James Bond movies back in the 1960's.  Not only that but they seem to take them into the garage, the den and read them while on the toilet.  And, that last location has us puzzled too.  Is there something in those documents, that make you go?  Or are they just that boring?

Maybe we're missing something like there's a punchline out there somewhere.  Or maybe it just escapes us here and everyone else gets it.  But we're sort of left scratching our heads.

And this one had us scratching our heads for a while and now they're going to release the body cam footage of the Police Officers who were called to Paul Pelosi's house in the early AM, when he got hit over the head with a hammer.  We're pretty sure the body cam footage is going to show that someone was in their underwear, different reports say it was Paul Pelosi in his underwear other's say it was the assailant but either way in all the reports and hospital records, Paul Pelosi gets hit over the head with a hammer.  Now some of The Talking Heads of the Mass Hysteria have been scratching their heads and their whole bodies with righteous indignation and demanding to know what was the guy (the assailant) doing there at early hours of the AM, how do these two people know each other and who was in their underwear?

But not us.  No, the reason we've been scratching our heads and doing it for a while too, is how were Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi former Speaker of The House of Representatives of the United States of America, able to amass a fortune of over 171 million dollars?  Was it wise investing?  Was it dumb luck?  Was it things like, they both sold over 30,000 shares of their Apple Stock, just a few weeks before the Federal Government started an anti-trust investigation of Apple?  And, Appel's stock then took a dive but Paul and Nancy didn't lose a dime?

And, not to be partisan because we've also been scratching over heads over one for a while too and it's how did Mitch McConnel Republican Majority Leader of The Senate of The United States of America, amass a fortune of over 34 million dollars?  Was it dumb luck striking once again?  Or was it wise investing, once again?

Hopefully, we've now left you and a whole lot of people, scratching their heads.

P.S. We went to press with this early Friday morning and since then the body cam footage has been released.  Rather than edit this article we chose to just update it and it seems that Paul Pelosi was the one in his underwear and yes, just like we said, Paul Pelosi got hit in the head with the hammer.

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Time To Cry

As Kevin McCarthy failed to get elected after14 ballots we were reminded of another Speaker of the House or Representatives, John Boehner.  John Boehner, had come from a humble background.  He was one of 12 siblings and he grew up in a 2 bedroom house in Cincinnati.  His ancestors had come to America from the Old Sod and Germany and little John had to start working in the family Saloon, when he was only 8 years old.  

John Boehner recalled all of this when he was elected Speaker of The House and he couldn't help it, his eyes just welled up with tears.  Where else but America could such a thing happen?  He was humbled.  He was honored.  But then a funny thing happened or kept happening.  Almost every time Boehner got up to speak somewhere, he began to cry.  He had come from so little and he was Speaker of the House!  He seemed to cry his way through the next 14 years, that he was Speaker.  Some said he was just overwhelmed at being Speaker.  Others said it was the booze.  He drank too much.  But either way, we haven't seen a Speaker of The House cry for awhile.  And now, maybe it's Kevin McCarthy's time to cry.  We mean he finally got the elected Speaker but only after losing 14 times.  Talk about a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer.

BTW don't they check to see how everyone is going to vote before they actually vote?  There was like only 21 guys here, who kept voting no.  Maybe in the future they'd want to check with those kind of guys to see if they changed their minds, before they actually take another vote.  Just a suggestion.

And Prince Harry is still crying.  Turns out it wasn't Meghan coming into his life that set off all the tears.  Seems Harry has been crying all his life, as the title of his new book says, he was the 'SPARE'.  Just in case like us you didn't know, a future King, like Prince Charles is supposed to produce an heir, Prince William and another kid called a 'SPARE', just in case something happens to the first kid.  And, that SPARE was Harry.  Poor baby. 

And Emily Ratajkowski (That's her pictured above.) says she attracts the worst men.  Seems she got divorced and started dating.  She's found that there are men who say they want a strong woman but then when they date her, they find that they really can't handle a strong woman.  Who knew?  We mean, that guys would just say anything to date a hot woman.

And no, we did not just throw her in this article, so we could put her picture at the top.  She's young, she's beautiful, successful and she's a strong woman.  And, she can't find a man.  When that happens...  It's time to cry.

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Love and Consequence

Since it is now 2023 and Valentine's day is about a month and a half away, love just might be be in the air and along with it, the consequence of relationships.  Michelle Obama, former first lady and wife of Barak Obama admitted in an interview that for 10 years she couldn't stand her husband.  Now, we harbor no ill will towards any President and have none towards former President Obama, but there were a whole lot of people who couldn't stand her husband for about 8 years.  They felt her pain.  Maybe they could all get together and talk in a big zoom conference?  It could be cathartic, as some people seem to still hold a grudge.  We don't of course.  We think it's silly to get mad at Presidents.  Sort of like getting mad at actors George Lazenby or Timothy Dalton, when they played James Bond.

Now you may not have heard about this love affair, as not too many people watch Good Morning America on ABC but both of the morning anchors T.J.Holmes and Amy Robach are having an affair.  This got a whole lot of people who run ABC all upset.  They suspended both of them.  Why?  We can't fathom.  Okay they were both married to other people when serendipity struck but puhleeze!  We mean with all the men who have been molesting women in the TV world, at least Amy really likes T.J..  And, ABC should be thrilled about that headline.  And, what with the CNN guys getting arrested and convicted of pedophilia, why would two consenting adults even raise an eyebrow?  BTW they've both left their previous spouses.  So this could be true love.  ABC, have a heart!  Free T.J. and Amy and put them back on the air.

And, there is precedent here too, Joe and Mika.  They met as co-anchors of a show known as Morning  Joe and then well things happened as they do and eventually they got married.  Not sure who was married to who when they met but nobody cared.  Nobody got suspended.  Maybe somebody should tell ABC about that.  ABC might not be aware of Joe and Mika, as nobody and we mean nobody, watches that show.

And, SBF aka Same Bankman-Fried who is confined to his Mommy and Daddy's house while he awaits trial, got a visit from Tiffany Fong.  That's her pictured above.  She says they met in the library of that house and it was all strictly business.  She's a Crypto Influencer and we're guessing she had a few questions for the Crypto King, so that's why she was there.  And, to those of you who say we just use any excuse to put a picture of a beautiful woman at the top of our column, we say, you're just haters.

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SBF Sam Bankman-Fried

We like that handle, SBF.  How many individuals ever get to be known by a three initial handle?  It was stylish for awhile for Presidents FDR, DDE, JFK and then LBJ.  But then it fell out of style.  Nixon was never RMN and Jimmy Carter was never JEC.  There was no ring there.  A lot of people get known by a few initials in their handle like J.D. Salinger, P.T. Barnum and D.B. Cooper but not too many people ever get that the three initial handle.

At first the Mass Hysteria referred to him by his whole name Sam Bankman-Fried but then slowly but surely, everyone, maybe just tired of typing all those letters, began to use the three initial moniker SBF.  We like it because the B in it smacks of something sinister, like the BTK killer.  It also has an artistic touch, like the boy band BTS from South Korea.  It also has a certain ring to it like cha-ching, the sound of money being rung up in an old style cash register.  And, that's the major problem for SBF.  He figured out how to ring it up, he just doesn't know right now, where it all went.  And, when you do that, a whole lot of people with three initial handles in their job title, like Special Agent FBI and Prosecutor DOJ, come looking for you.

Ole SBF has other problems too.  Like a decent haircut or hair style for one thing.  But the real big problem at the moment, is his long time girl friend has gone solo.  She's thrown him under the Bus.  She's singing to the Feds.  And while she maybe skinny, it's going to have the same effect as when the fat lady at the Opera sings.  

And, while SBF does his time and it may be a long stretch, as the DOJ insists on it, when you steal billions, it might dawn on him that he should have listened to Beyonce when she sang. 

"You can't be mad.  

Cause if you liked it you should have put a ring on it."  

There is this thing called spousal immunity.  

And, we don't care how "woke" you might be when you first saw a picture of Caroline Ellison, SBF's longtime girlfriend pictured right here, 

you thought.  'The guy's a billionaire and he can't do any better than that?'.  Or maybe you thought how old is she?  She looks happy here, like she just got her braces off.

And, as 2023 comes into view, we can see that there will be heroes and zeros.  And then, there will be  some people who will go from hero to zero.  SBF, Crypto King, who used to hob knob with the rich and the fabulous, gets to be the first.

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Some People Had A Very Good Year 2022

First up Dr. Fauci.  Now you may be thinking but wait a second this guy speaks out of both sides of his mouth and sometimes in the same sentence.  He's the face of lockdowns, masks and vaccines, none of which worked.  He's like a bad joke no one wants to hear anymore.  How could he have had a good year?  Well, it seems that during the pandemic Dr. Fauci's net worth almost doubled.  He was worth 7.6 million before the pandemic began and by the end of 2021 he was worth 12.6 million.  

How did you do while sitting home, wearing masks and getting jabbed?

Then in 2022 some non-profit gave him $901,400 for "speaking truth to power".  Not sure how they figured that, since he was The Guy.  Who was he speaking to, himself?  But either way, when you add up all the bucks, The Guy, had a very good year.

Next up Harry and Meghan.  What?  You may say.  They just put out a Netflix series that just about everyone hates.  We mean the audience score from Rotten Tomatoes was a measly 12%, which might be some kind of a record.  And, they too have become a bad joke, no one wants to hear but... Ah, there's the rub.  They got 100 million dollars.  That's $100,000,000.00 to put it in a sign, your eyes can't miss.  And they got all that dough, to tell about how they met, dated and how their families suck.  The first and second parts are something you bore your friends to death about and the third thing...  You sit or lie on a couch and pay good money to a qualified individual, to listen to.  So while their names may be mud right now in the public forum, when you add up all the bucks, they had a very good year.

Then there is Sam Bankman-Fried the Crypto currency King who amassed a 32 billion dollar empire.  Yeah, yeah it's all come undone in the last week and he's in jail but he didn't get arrested until December 12, 2022.  That means there was only 20 days left in 2022, at the time of his arrest.  So, he got to spend the other 245 days of 2022 doing whatever the Wolf of Wall Street greed is good crowd, do.  Of course 2023 won't be so hot or the next 25 years either but 2022?  He'll look back on that fondly.

Last but certainly not least, Elon Musk.  Elon has rocket ships, electric cars and he bought Twitter.  He's a bona fide Billionaire and maybe the richest man in the world.  And, he doesn't get upset when people say nasty things about him.  He just Tweets back something funny.  We like his style.  He really had a good year and we wish him many more to come.

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