Photography Thinks
Republican Rick Scott is running for the Senate in Florida with Trump’s support against Democrat incumbent Bill Nelson. After the third mass shooting in Florida, he called for prayer as a means to end gun violence. Happily, after Parkland, we now have a three day waiting period and a background check. That’s a start, but how he thinks prayer is going to stop gun deaths escapes me. He had the same advice for stopping red and green algae from gumming up our shores: pray.
I lost my friend Tom Wolfe this year. Not that we were that close, but we were more than just reader and writer friends. I helped him, along with other lawyers, develop Sherman McCoy for Bonfire of the Vanities.
I might have given him some insight into Larry Kramer, the Jewish ADA (I was a Jewish ADA), and into Judge Myron Kovitsky, a Bronx judge who refuses to be influenced by the press, the public or publicity-seeking prosecutors patterned after Justice Burton Roberts, a judge I had been honored to know when I was a Law Secretary and to appear before when I became a criminal defense attorney.
Burt, by the way, took no shit from anyone. One of a kind. I wish I could have been him. He was bigger than life.
On my bookshelf is an autographed copy of the book. You might remember the bail argument where the DA wants $250,000 and the Judge sets $10,000. You might also remember what happened to the case, but that’s for you to look up.
Tom also figures in my personal tragedy, something he told me he would write about but never did. He called me right after Komar/Oliver died to provide emotional support. We had lunch together several times and went for walks. Few other people wanted to have anything to do with me. I am honored by his friendship and what he taught me about writing, reading and style.
Tom comes to mind for a couple of reasons. First, I went to see BlacKKKlansman. It’s story that deals with three groups: Black Panthers, Cops and the KKK. Second: Tom used the phrase Radical Chic to dishonor those in the upper classes who would profess support for love of those fighting class and race wars while living trendy. The term appeared in an article written by him about a party at Lenny Bernstein’s 13 room Park Avenue duplex penthouse to raise money for the Panthers legal defense, called Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s. Third, today, is Lenny’s Birthday. He’d be 100.
Want some parallels. Too many abound. Like the Central Park Five, the Pahers were acquitted. Lenny took a lot of shit for his support of left wing causes and even the Rabbi who supported him got death threats. Unite the Right occurred in Charlottesburg a year ago in August. And, Donny Douchebag supports the White supremacists, including David Duke whom he purports not to have heard of.
Do more to stop hatred and racism. It happens at a cost.
So much out there to complain about and what are we talking up, some woman who says Donny Douchebag is senile and a racist. Opiods are killing 50,000 a year. The stupid war on drugs continues to be a waste of money and an attack on human dignity. Families destroyed. Health care facilities overworked. The only people benefitting are those connected to the Courts, Jails and drug manufacturers. Read Dopesick, take two aspirin and get back to me in the morning.
So, someone on the Final Solution team went to someone a little lower on the totem pole and said, “…, hey, come up with a latrine system so that the prisoners can piss and shit. I wonder how many designs they tested?
Boycott Nathan’s Hot Dogs. Owner, Howard Lorber, hosts Trump today and raises money for the next election. Leaving aside the fact Trump is a hot dog, he and Lorber visited Russia together. He probably serves Nathan’s at his country clubs and PXs. High on the topics during the visit is whether Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo will be invited to the White House to be honored for their eating records. Another topic might be what Trump wants Lorber to be silent about their visit and the oligarchs they spoke with. I hope the Manafort jury doesn’t order hot dogs for lunch.
Typhoid and dysentry and who knows what else. No sheets. No blankets. Shit through the slats. Next day, move the bodies from the gas chamber to the crematorium. Take a wiff. Listen in. Workers died from disease, exhaustion and malnutrition. Many killed. Replaced. How did the Nazis do this? Few stood up for fear of death, never thinking about others. The autocrats took over, spreading their lies about the Jews. Only Aryan children were allowed to survive. Horrific understates the evilness.
So, these people were on Shindler’s list, a list typed up by Isaak Stern who faces us in the middle panel, third row from the bottom, third from the right. Bless the righteous.
The most amazing plants abound in the rain forest. Some live just for a day. It’s cooler under the canopy and wetter. This flower looks to me like an Earth Angel. She posed for me.
Soon, Gene won’t be here and the plants will be all alone. No one will remember them.
Gene Joyner built a Tropical Rain Forest in West Palm Beach called “Unbelievable Acres.”
The park suffered terrible damage during last year’s Hurricane Irma. He’s bringing it back, but some financial help is needed. I wrote Melania Trump after she visited Morikami in nearby Delray Beach. Have not heard from her.
So, it looks like a room that has fallen into disrepair, but is isn’t. People shed their clothes, their jewelry, their eyeglasses, canes and everything that they had, and led their children and their friends and families and fellow Jews into this space to be gassed. The door was shut. The gas released. And they suffered a painful and miserable death. It took about 20 minutes.