A Fact Check Free Zone

This post started as a simple comment to Dave about Amy Carter and an allergy she may have related to metal touching her skin. How I got from that to this pile is as confusing to me as it might be to you.

Regarding Amy and the missing wedding band, she never looked all that, um, what would be the best word…? Libidinous? She looks like her “father”* to a degree, but she also looks like her late uncle, Billy. Her “son” looks like the prop husband but nothing like her.

“Quotation marks” you ask? Continue reading “A Fact Check Free Zone”

Two Arrests- No Crimes Committed

The royal Chinese courts allowed parallel histories to co-exist. There was an official history issued by the Emperor which was used to determine the value of this and that (laws and customs) by controlling the nomenclature, and a wild history: a mélange of rumors, superstitions and bald faced lies told with real brio that resonated with the peasants, allowing them head space to dream rather than act out.

The following is neither- It is opinion based on contempt for institutions that used to have my admiration. This is me acting out… based on highly suspect information sources, of course. Take any of it with a sea’s worth of salt- Continue reading “Two Arrests- No Crimes Committed”

The Magic Bulldozer

I am grateful to JC, an infrequent commenter (and severe critic), for finding the original of this blog post in the Wayback Machine. I originally published in on 4/13/17, and then like all blog material, it faded into obscurity. I was working on a piece on John Brown, the Civil War agent provocateur, and noticed that part of his public stage play was a hostage event. One of the hostages was Lewis Washington, George’s g-grand-nephew. That does not happen, of course – bloodliners are not taken hostage, not for real. But they do occasionally allow their names to be used in fake events, as with Frank Sinatra, Jr. and Patty Hearst. So too must have Lewis allowed his name to be used.

Continue reading “The Magic Bulldozer”

Blog notes, and stuff

The Piece of Mindful blog is in a state of transition … this format has been sent off to some local WordPress guys for a workover, and is in beta stage. In the end, if all goes according to plan, a trip here will offer one of several choices … the four authors who currently write here, or the various menus on the side. There will be some glitches … all photos used in the past will revert to a standard size, but with minimal effort we can fix that.

Continue reading “Blog notes, and stuff”

Auto-da-fé

I know I’m walking right into the trap they have set, but what the hell…

I spent the weekend trying to make sense of the public immolation of the persona of Harvey Weinstein. I looked at it from several economic angles and nothing made sense. Film, streaming, gaming, they are all chugging along at record profits. What’s Harvey Weinstein to all of that? His crap wins awards. Prestige is a thing in Hollywood and he delivers. He’s a valuable asset to the propaganda machine. Continue reading “Auto-da-fé”

Canadian tourists

In dinner discussions on the Haute Route, people who learned we are Americans gingerly approached the topic of Donald Trump. The most in-depth conversations were with a young and very intelligent German man, and two people from Wales.

What I learned, and to my mild surprise, is that these folks, just like most Americans, take him at face value. They assume he really is the president, that he really was elected, and that all of his antics intended only for effect are quite real. When I suggested to Allan, the man from Wales, that Melania Trump is just a beard, his wife had to explain the meaning of the term to him. It was a delightful exchange. He is an accomplished man with a great sense of humor, educated in one of the best universities. But I find that virtually all people, no matter the baseline intellect and education, are encased in a hard shell of propaganda. The psyops from Trump to Obama the intellectual juris doctor all work on them. They do not question reality as presented by news.

Continue reading “Canadian tourists”

A brief time in the Hamptons

We just returned from a brief stay in “The Hamptons.” I’ve never really known what exactly that phrase means, but in my mind it is large beach houses and Billy Joel and Jerry Seinfeld sunning on their decks. It is technically the east end of Long Island, the southern part of the fish tail that it forms, and is comprised of Southampton, East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and others ending like that.

Continue reading “A brief time in the Hamptons”

Rihan Rihanna danna?

Rihanna is a beautiful woman, so there being two of her is a real treat. Like Drake down below, there are images of her about with her “twin,” and yet Wikipedia makes no mention of that. So I gather that it is being done to muddy the waters, as with Drake, as Rihanna is indeed a twin.

First the publicized “fake” twin shots:

That really ought to seal it, as they look genuine to me, and they look like twins. But having learned from my Steve Clark episode not to presume anything, I went ahead and ran down nine photos, five of which turned out to be one twin, four the other.

Here is Twin #1:

That, we can all agree, is a very sultry, sexy woman. You meet someone like her in a bar, find out she is with a guy, and ask “Have you got a sister?”

She does, in this case. Twin #2:

Are you picking up on this? Twin #2 is more open and gregarious, and smiles very easily. We find this so often with twins, one a little more withdrawn and the other more outgoing. It must be just how they play off each other growing up, the roles they adopt.

Bear with me, as I will do but one face split:

rihanna-14-and-21-composite

They are so close that I am wondering if famous people can wear fake ears, because the ears give away the game. The chin is a tad longer on one, the noses miss by just a very little bit. These are identical twins, or my name is not Drake.

That’s it for today.