The Riverbends Channel: ‘James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)’

Source:The Riverbends Channel- author James Baldwin debating William F. Buckley in 1965.

Source:The Daily Post 

“Historic debate between James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University on the question: “Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?

From the Riverbends Channel 

You won’t find better debates than this one, with so many intelligent, thoughtful, respectful people, a debate with both James Baldwin and William Buckley. In this debate, they are addressing the biggest issue of the 1960s, perhaps the biggest issue in the history of the United States, civil rights: should we treat all Americans regardless of race equally under the law?

As far as the debate goes, I believe the answer is obvious, that of course the American dream for Caucasian-Americans has been achieved at the expense of Africans who were kidnapped and brought to America and the Caribbean to serve Caucasians. Once the Africans were legally free from slavery and became Americans, Caucasians continued to live the American dream at the expense of African-Americans. 

The examples are obvious starting with slavery and then moving to segregation during which African-Americans were forced to live in inadequate ghetto housing and attend substandard schools. They had to settle for the only jobs they could get, such as house servants for upper and middle class Caucasian-American families, because they were denied the educational opportunities that would lead to well-paying jobs with good benefits.

KQED: James Baldwin- 'Who Is The Nigger?'

Source:KQED- Author James Baldwin, talking about the word nigger.

Source:The Daily Post

“A clip from, “Take this Hammer”… KQED’s mobile film unit follows author and activist James Baldwin in the spring of 1963, as he’s driven around San Francisco to meet with members of the local African-American community. Baldwin reflects on the racial inequality that African-Americans are forced to confront and at one point tries to lift the morale of a young man by expressing his conviction that: “There will be a Negro president of this country but it will not be the country that we are sitting in now.” 

From KQED 

James Baldwin was certainly not a nigger. Only ignorant people who do not know enough about the people they are afraid of regardless of race are niggers.

What I believe Baldwin’s point about nigger, a word I hate and not even comfortable writing, let alone saying, but what I think he was saying is that nigger was something that people who hate Africans and people of African descent call African people especially African-Americans.

Caucasian racists of European descent who are both ignorant and hateful of people with dark brown and black complexions that African people especially African-Americans tend to have.

Native-Africans just tend to have black skin unless they come from the Arab states in the North and people up there tend to look more Mediterranean decent. People with olive and brown complexions. Italians, Greeks, Southern Slavs, French, Spanish, Portuguese and so-forth.

Mysteries & Scandals: Lana Turner

Source:IMDB- Hollywood Babydoll Lana Turner in Madame X (1966)

Source:The Daily Post  

“What happened on that night in 1958 when Lana Turner’s mobster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death? Was she responsible or was it her teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane?

Edward Epstein (biographer), Jim Bacon (journalist), Willie Wilkerson (author), Del Armstrong (make-up artist), Cheryl Crane (daughter) and Glenn Rose (publicist) are interviewed about the career of Lana Turner.

Turner’s career is given a quick overview as we hear about how she was discovered and then we get into her most famous roles. However, if you’re a fan of the series then you know there has to be some sort of downfall and for Turner it was when her daughter murdered her gangster boyfriend. The interviews here are extremely good because they give plenty of details about the actual case and some of them were friends with Turner or were around when the events happened. We also get an interview with her daughter, which was entertaining. Fans of the series will certainly enjoy this…

From IMDB 

“Lana Turner Mysteries & Scandals -Documentary” 

Source:Know The History- Lana Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane.

From Know The History 

“Lana Turner Mysteries & Scandals. This is an E! production.” 

Source:Billy Estabrook- from the Mysteries and Scandals documentary of Lana Turner.

From Billy Estabrook 

Source:Alison Martino- Mysteries and Scandals: Lana Turner.

This I believe is the cover photo from E Entertainment’s Mysteries and Scandals documentary of Lana Turner from the 1990s. But the video that this photo is from is not currently available online.

I saw the movie The Bad and Beautiful from 1952 with Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Barry Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon and many others, a great cast. And in that movie Lana plays an actress who is very similar to the woman that Lana played in real-life. A talented, but tiny hot baby-face adorable woman, who is somewhat immature and never seems very happy, at least for long. Who seems to be addicted to scandal, who drinks too much and gets into trouble.

That is the Lana Turner that I’ve read and have heard about. The Bad and The Beautiful, could almost be a biography of Lana Tuner. At least her early career in Hollywood. Because the woman she plays there is very similar to the woman she was in real-life at the same time.

Lana seemed to be either addicted to danger and scandal in her life, or it just sticked to her like glue and she could never rip it off. Or perhaps he was addicted to Hollywood and the Hollywood life. Of living through tabloids and doing crazy things that get yourself in the tabloids and generate publicity about yourself. That leads to roles that clean up for to do them successfully.

Like Lana’s relationship with Italian gangster John Stompanato, who she must have known was with the Italian-American Mafia. This just goes to the crazy life aspect. (To almost paraphrase Paris Hilton) That a clean boyfriend and actor for Lana, would’ve been boring and perhaps anti-Hollywood to her. That Lana almost had to be in danger to be in happy in life.

Lana also knew that she had a daughter and how dangerous her and her daughter’s life was in being hooked up with a gangster. But that wasn’t enough for her not to get involved with him in the first place. How Stompanato died, I don’t think we’ll ever really know. Certainly not enough there to hold Lana for murder and Stompanato dying. I hate to say this, but it really wasn’t any bad news for anyone outside of his family, his real family that is.

But again Lana playing a Hollywood movie role, but her in real-life. With the only question being how did Stompanato die. Was is in self-defense or did Lana, or her daughter Cheryl murder him.

And this is all before you get to what really was a great career for Lana Turner. Imagine Marilyn Monroe, but someone who lived more than twice as long. A smaller even cuter Marilyn Monroe in Lana Turner, who managed to grow up in time to have what really was a great life and career. Where you’re talking about not just one of the best actress’s of her generation, but all-time. The same class as Rita Hayworth, Susan Hayward, Ava Turner, Lauren Bacall and many other great actress’s. In movies like The Bad and The Beautiful, Peyton Place, Madame X, Another Time Another Place, The Big Cube, Love Has Many Faces and I really could go on. But in interest of my own time I won’t.

The Johnny Stompanato relationship, is classic Lana Turner. She’s this hot baby-faced little cutie, who gets involved with an Italian gangster like Stompanato. Where just the fact that Lana is a woman and men shouldn’t attack women anyway and then add that he’s so much larger than this little cutie who at times at least could still come off as a little girl and all of these things means nothing to Stompanato. Who could probably kill people for giving them bad looks.

And Lana who was at time crazy as far as how she lived and perhaps wild would be more accurate, had to know Stompanato’s background going in. That he was clearly a dangerous man who had a temper. But again a relationship with a good man who stays out of trouble, would have been boring for Lana.

As far as what happened to Johnny Stompanato, which is what this show I guess is ultimately about, even though I’m more interested in Lana’s life and career. Lana or Cheryl, killed Stompanato, I don’t see how you can call this murder. Stompanato, was a mobster with a temper, who had a history of abusing Lana. And went too far one night with Lana’s daughter being there and either Lana or Cheryl, had the ability to defend themselves and back Stompanato off. And that’s exactly what did. Don’t believe either of them intentionally killed Stompanato. But in a lot of Stompanato cases the defender is simply just trying to back the attacker off. And perhaps shoots the person o hits them too hard. And the attacker dies as a result. And I believe that is what happened in this case.

California Newsreel: James Baldwin: ‘The Price of The Ticket’

Source:California Newsreel- James Baldwin: The Price of The Ticket.

Source:The Daily Post 

“James Baldwin (1924-1987) was at once a major twentieth century American author, a Civil Rights activist and, for two crucial decades, a prophetic voice calling Americans, Black and white, to confront their shared racial tragedy. James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket captures on film the passionate intellect and courageous writing of a man who was born black, impoverished, gay and gifted. 

James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket uses striking archival footage to evoke the atmosphere of Baldwin’s formative years – the Harlem of the 30s, his father’s fundamentalist church and the émigré demimonde of postwar Paris. Newsreel clips from the ’60’s record Baldwin’s running commentary on the drama of the Civil Rights movement. The film also explores his quiet retreats in Paris, the South of France, Istanbul and Switzerland – places where Baldwin was able to write away from the racial tensions of America. 

Writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, William Styron and biographer David Leeming place Baldwin’s work in the African-American literary tradition – from slave narratives and black preaching to their own contemporary work. The film skillfully links excerpts from Baldwin’s major books – Go Tell it on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Another Country, The Fire Next Time, Blues for Mister Charlie, If Beale Street Could Talk – to different stages in Black-white dialogue and conflict.

Towards the end of his life, as America turned its back on the challenge of racial justice, Baldwin became frustrated but rarely bitter. He kept writing and reaching in the strengthened belief that : “All men are brothers – That’s the bottom line.” 

From California Newsreel 

I think James Baldwin’s best statement in this video is that he wasn’t a member of a race or a religion or any group, that he was a human being. 

I imagine that is all James Baldwin wanted to be seen as and judged as, James Baldwin the person and perhaps who just happens to also be part of this group or these groups. 

Martin King’s’ dream was that he dreamed of a world where his children wouldn’t be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Or how I would put it and how I look at people as both a person and a Liberal, that I look at people as individuals first. And perhaps as members of groups second or even further down the line. But not as part of this race, ethnicity, religion or any other class that has nothing to do with how good of a person they are. And how they should be judged and treated in life.

CBS News: Face The Nation- Senator Joseph McCarthy: November 7, 1954

Source:CBS News- U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin) Chairman of the Senate Investigative Committee (83rd Congress)

Source:The Daily Post

“In the first Face the Nation broadcast on television, Sen. Joseph McCarthy responds to questions about his infamous hearings. (CBS NEWS)”

From CBS News 

Senator McCarthy’s power in Congress was pretty much over at this point with Democrats winning back Congress in 1954. With McCarthy’s credibility and reputation being ruined with the McCarthy hearings and with the Senate censoring him in late 1954.

Joe McCarthy would be dead in less than two years after this interview was conducted. His political career essentially over as far as being a force in Congress and even in the Senate. With Congressional Democrats taking full control over Congress both the House and Senate in 1954, 56, and 58. And with a Republican Party that was behind Dwight Eisenhower and against McCarthy style fascism.

Do I believe Joe McCarthy was an anti-communist? Of course I do which is what even most Democrats were at this point, even the Far-Left of the party, at least to a certain extent. Do I believe Senator McCarthy believed there were Communists in the U.S. Government? Well based on the evidence that he and his staff brought to the committee and what his own Republican members were saying about these hearings, I would say no. But of course I can’t get into the man’s head, but perhaps he was seeing and believing things that simply weren’t there. Or this was simply about taking advantage of the so-called Red Scare in America and using it to further one’s own political career.

The whole McCarthy hearings were exactly about that and trying to look so anti-communist that you believed that communism was so evil and had no business in the U.S. Government, but that perhaps Communists had no right to exist and even be free in America. This was using what so-called anti-Communists say Communists use against people who are to the right of them. Which is most of the political spectrum, but using fascism and saying, “we are the good guys and they are the bad guys” to the point that we are on the side of good and should be treated as such. While they are evil and have no right to exist at all.”

NFL Films: The Autumn Wind- The Oakland Raiders Code

Source:NFL Films- Al Davi's creation: The Oakland Raiders.

Source:The Daily Post

"The Autumn Wind Oakland Raiders Theme:
JUST WIN BABY"

From The Autumn Wind

I hope for Raiders fans this makes up for the fact that they’ve been so bad the last ten years. The great history that they had in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. I’m not a Raider fan, because I still have horrible memories and even nightmares that I’m getting professional help for. Because of how they took apart my great 1983 Redskins in Super Bowl 18.

But imagine what it must be like for Raider fans who write about football and what they’re going through right now. Suffering through ten straight non-winning seasons. Where in this period an 8-8 season was considered successful for them. Something they’ve accomplished once or twice. I mean you have all of those great memories from the 1970s and even 1980s, (unless you still live in Oakland) to go with the current nightmare you’re currently going through.

I think something that current Raiders fans are going through who are long time Raider fans and remember the 1970s, or at least the 1980s, that could be compared with the current state of Raider Nation, would like what New York Yankee fans went through in the early 1990s. Say 1991, 92, 93, when they were no longer just not winning or playing in World Series, but they were no longer not even winning the AL East, or not even making the AL Playoffs, but 1992 was the Yankees fourth straight losing season. Something they hadn’t done since the late 1960s-early 1970s. If you include the 1994 strike-shorten season where the Yankees were in place to make the AL Playoffs, they missed the playoffs thirteen straight seasons. But finished with winning seasons in eight of those years. The Raiders have even been worst than that. 10 straight non-winning seasons.

When I think of the Oakland Raiders, I think of very tough and very smart football teams, that have a lot of speed. Who go right after you and take you apart. You want to play cover-two against their vertical passing game, Cliff Branch will run right through it and catch a bomb from Ken Stabler. Or take a short pass to the house.

Or they will run the ball right down your throat to get you to play them straight up. With a defense that comes right after you, because they have two cover corners with Lester Hayes and Mike Haynes. And can stuff the run simply with their front seven and don’t have to blitz. With Howie Long, Lyle Alzado, Greg Townsend and many others up front. Attacking the QB. That is how you have the best record in football in the 1960s and 1970s and how you win three Super Bowls and four AFC Championship’s.

That is just not the current Raider Nation and it hasn’t been that way for a long time. Now they play in a stadium that is not the Black Hole, but more like a Toilet Bowl, with a Toilet Bowl team. That can be counted on to finish last in a four team division every year.Playing in a stadium that is falling apart and in a city that won’t do its part to help them get a new stadium, or at least rebuild the current one.

And part of this blame goes to the City of Oakland for not doing their part to keep up with the maintenance of the Oakland Coliseum. But the first person you want to look at and I hate to say this, because I have a lot of respect for Al Davis who created the Oakland Raiders, but you have to look at his mismanagement of his franchise. And not hiring a competent person to run his club for him. And trying to do too much on his own.

C-SPAN: Senate Watergate Hearings: John Dean’s Opening Statement

Source:C-SPAN- President Richard Nixon White House Counsel John Dean, testifying in from of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973.

Source:The FreeState

"Watergate Hearings: John Dean's Opening Statement (1973)"

From C-SPAN

It seems to me anyway and I believe either Bob Woodward, or Carl Bernstein and perhaps both of them have said this, but that John Dean was not only deeply involved in the Watergate coverup, but it’s not until he finds out that President Nixon was going to hang him out to dry on it and have Dean take the wrap for it, that Dean decided: “you know what, I could get in a lot of trouble here. Its time to take my losses and not make this any worst for me and my family and talk to the investigators and prosecutors now. Before I get blamed for the whole damn conspiracy.” And perhaps Dean wasn’t even as diplomatic as that.

Sam Dash, who was the Senate Democratic Counsel on the Watergate Committee, essentially has said the same things. And if all of this true, then Dean isn’t hero in this story, but someone who saved his ass. And if anything got off fairly easy from his involvement in this scandal. Especially since he was White House Chief Counsel and pretty high up in the White House. And as an accomplished lawyer, knew what we was doing was illegal. Paying for the silence of the Watergate burglars. Just to use as an example.