Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 11:59:19 AM EDT
Subject: n.va: pix of dusky guy arrested for bank robberies, drug store holdups
I kinda new when I read the news alert that is wouldn't be an Amish teen gone wild:
Monday, May 06, 2024
n.va: pix of dusky guy arrested for bank robberies, drug store holdups
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 11:59:19 AM EDT
Transcript of Eva Vlaardingerbroek speech at cpac hungary
Transcript of Eva Vlaardingerbroek speech at CPAC Hungary
former baltimore "prosecutor" seeks preemptive pardon from brandon
former baltimore "prosecutor" seeks preemptive pardon from brandon
I should have added that she has a "sister" in chicongo state's atty kim foxx:
not seeking reelection in 2024. note her handling of jussie smollett case:
One of Barack's sons gone wild? family identifies Houston attorney as man killed after trying to calm angry customer at McDonald’s off Katy freeway
By A Texas Reader
monday, may 6, 2024 at 09:43:44 p.m. edt
family identifies Houston attorney as man killed after trying to calm angry customer at McDonald's off Katy freeway
One of Barack's sons gone wild?
Brown bear ruins child’s birthday eating ducklings in its enclosure in front of them
By R.C.
monday, may 6, 2024 at 09:53:47 p.m. edt
Brown bear ruins child’s birthday eating ducklings in its enclosure in front of them
https://www.audacy.com/krld/news/national/brown-bear-ruins-childs-birthday-eating-ducklings-enclosure?json?
It wasn’t a black bear?
monday, may 6, 2024 at 09:53:47 p.m. edt
Brown bear ruins child’s birthday eating ducklings in its enclosure in front of them
https://www.audacy.com/krld/news/national/brown-bear-ruins-childs-birthday-eating-ducklings-enclosure?json?
It wasn’t a black bear?
man dead after crashing into white house fence
By Grand Rapids Anonymous
monday, may 6, 2024 at 11:41:00 p.m. edt
abc7
GRA: I guess we won’t be seeing Hunter Biden anymore.
--GRA
monday, may 6, 2024 at 11:41:00 p.m. edt
abc7
GRA: I guess we won’t be seeing Hunter Biden anymore.
--GRA
dusky doings dept: mr. Polite's gun doesn't go off when he tries to shoot pastor Germany
By N.S.
monday, may 6, 2024 at 10:58:52 p.m. edt
dusky doings dept: mr. Polite's gun doesn't go off when he tries to shoot pastor Germany
God's Will be done...or something:
“man tries to shoot pastor during service livestream; suspect’s relative is later found dead
“Bernard Junior Polite, 26, told Glenn Germany he was ‘hearing voices’ that told him to shoot him on sunday. Pennsylvania state police said ‘the firearm failed to discharge.’”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-attempts-shoot-pennsylvania-pastor-sermon-livestream-suspects-rela-rcna150817
monday, may 6, 2024 at 10:58:52 p.m. edt
dusky doings dept: mr. Polite's gun doesn't go off when he tries to shoot pastor Germany
God's Will be done...or something:
“man tries to shoot pastor during service livestream; suspect’s relative is later found dead
“Bernard Junior Polite, 26, told Glenn Germany he was ‘hearing voices’ that told him to shoot him on sunday. Pennsylvania state police said ‘the firearm failed to discharge.’”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-attempts-shoot-pennsylvania-pastor-sermon-livestream-suspects-rela-rcna150817
former Maryland lacrosse star Callum Robinson among surfers found dead in mexico
By Prince George's County Ex-Pat
monday, may 6, 2024 at 08:34:06 p.m. edt
former Maryland lacrosse star Callum Robinson among surfers found dead in mexico
https://wjla.com/news/local/callum-robinson-maryland-lacrosse-player-star-stevenson-university-chesapeake-bay-hawks-annapolis-missing-dead-american-surfers-mexico-trip-jake-murder-baja-penisula-truck-stolen-tires
“There are jobs that Americans won’t do.”
monday, may 6, 2024 at 08:34:06 p.m. edt
former Maryland lacrosse star Callum Robinson among surfers found dead in mexico
https://wjla.com/news/local/callum-robinson-maryland-lacrosse-player-star-stevenson-university-chesapeake-bay-hawks-annapolis-missing-dead-american-surfers-mexico-trip-jake-murder-baja-penisula-truck-stolen-tires
“There are jobs that Americans won’t do.”
black supremacist manhattan criminal advocate Alvin Bragg seeks to convict the president simply of winning the 2016 election
N.S.: Alex Berenson is assuming that the one-sided game democrats are playing is dangerous. But how? republicans never match fire with fire, so democrats have nothing to worry about. Note how, with all of the crimes they have committed against him, democrats keep demanding the President promise he will not seek revenge against them, if he wins for a third time. And democrats and other Trump-haters are even demanding that he not avenge himself against goper backstabbers. Then again, he stabbed his own most loyal gop supporter, Jeff Sessions, in the back.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Alex Berenson from Unreported Truths <alexberenson@substack.com>
To: "add1dda@aol.com" <add1dda@aol.com>
Sent: Monday, May 6, 2024 at 03:16:27 PM EDT
The Manhattan District Attorney's office is playing a very dangerous game in Donald Trump's trial
the manhattan district attorney's office is playing a very dangerous game in Donald Trump's trialDemocratic prosecutors are saying the quiet part out loud to a Democratic jury: Convict Trump for winning the 2016 election. If he wins again this year, they (and all of us) will reap the whirlwind.
"A criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election." That's the crime prosecutor Matthew Colangelo - a top official in Joe Biden's Justice Department until he joined the Manhattan district attorney's office to prosecute Donald Trump - claimed last week Trump had committed. That "scheme" is why Trump faces 34 New York state felony charges for "falsifying business records," a crime that is normally a misdemeanor, Colangelo said in his opening statement to the Manhattan jury that will decide if Trump is guilty. In mid-April, a Richard L. Hasen, a left-leaning expert on election law, wrote in the Los Angeles Times the New York charges "are so minor I don't expect they will shake up the presidential race." Hasen was half-right. The charges are minor. But the way prosecutors are framing the case is not. Local Democratic prosecutors want to send Trump, a Republican, to prison, for a "crime" that comes down to beating Hillary Clinton in 2016. Win or lose, their effort may destabilize the American legal system for decades. (To understand exactly why, subscribe! This one is worth it, or your money back.) In a 2009 book called "Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent," Harvey Silverglate, a veteran defense lawyer, described how federal United States attorneys used vague laws to bring indictments against unpopular politicians and business executives. The problem had worsened for decades as the federal criminal code expanded and prosecutors pushed its limits, Silverglate argued. He quoted Robert Jackson, a Supreme Court Justice who was also the chief American prosecutor in the post-World War 2 crimes trials at Nuremberg: After explaining why a federal prosecutor must choose cases carefully and recognize that not every crime can be pursued, Jackson turned to the heart of his talk: '"If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants." Here one finds "the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted." Silverglate expressed less concern about state prosecutors. Tighter statutes restricted them and they focused on more obvious crimes, Silverglate wrote. — But the Trump indictment flips Silverglate's concern about the power of federal prosecutors and local politicians on its head. In this case, local prosecutors, who answer only to local voters in a heavily Democratic county, aren't just stretching a state criminal statute to its limits. They are doing so explicitly to punish a Republican politician over his tactics in his race for president - the only truly national election in the United States. To be clear, prosecutors have not charged Trump with committing any crime in 2016. He is charged only with technical violations of obscure bookkeeping laws in 2017. In fact, the actual crime Trump supposedly committed is almost farcical in its unimportance. He supposedly misclassified $420,000 in expenses in internal accounting records as "legal services" when they were actually reimbursements for payments that his lawyer Michael Cohen had made on his behalf. But the 2016 election underlies the indictment, and not in a subtle or implicit way, as the prosecution has made clear. The government's star witness during the trial's first week was David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer. Pecker testified about his efforts to improve Trump's image in the years before the 2016 election. Pecker paid Karen McDougal, a woman who claimed she had had an affair with Trump, $150,000 to buy the exclusive rights to her story. Then he buried it, a practice called "catch and kill." Seamy, for sure. And in 2021, Pecker agreed to pay $187,500 to settle a Federal Election Commission investigation into whether the payment to MacDougal was an illegal campaign contribution. But Trump is not charged for anything related to the National Enquirer's payments to MacDougal. Instead, prosecutors used Pecker's testimony to make the case that Trump worried that publicity about his affairs with MacDougal and Stormy Daniels, a porn star, might hurt his campaign in 2016. — (Don't do the porn star if you can't do the time?)
— Assume the prosecutors are correct. Assume Trump's only motive for hiding his affairs was to improve the chances he would win the 2016, that he didn't want to keep them secret for some other reason. Assume also that he actually coordinated with Pecker and the National Enquirer to hide MacDougal's story. The correct response remains, So what? Why on earth is Trump on trial? In 2016, Hillary Clinton's campaign used campaign funds to pay for the infamous "Steele dossier," the research report that falsely linked Trump to Russia. This is not a conspiracy theory. In 2022, Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid a $113,000 fine to the FEC to settle an investigation into the payments. Clinton's campaign then worked with friendly news organizations to plant stories based on that research. — (For once, you can trust CNN)
— And Clinton's campaign had a relationship with elite media outlets like the New York Times at least as good as the one Trump had with the National Enquirer. (Famously, Amy Chozick, the Times's lead reporter on the Clinton campaign, wrote that she'd cried the day after Trump beat Clinton in 2016. Pecker and Trump may be friends, but it is hard to imagine Pecker shedding tears if Trump had lost.) If Donald Trump is being indicted for his 2016 shenanigans, why isn't Hillary Clinton? To be clear, I am not suggesting anyone should prosecute Clinton for the role her campaign played in generating the Steele dossier or spreading it around. What I am saying is that, as Finley Peter Dunne famously said in 1895, "Politics ain't beanbag." Any candidate worthy of the name will want to win badly, and will do everything possible to portray himself in the best possible light and his opponent in the worst. That's true in every election, much less one where the world's most powerful office is at stake. For local prosecutors to attempt to turn what are most technical legal violations into felonies on the basis that Donald Trump wanted to keep his private affairs private in a presidential election is a dangerous overreach. — The fact Trump is leading Joe Biden in this year's presidential race makes the situation even worse. The New York Times argued convincingly this weekend in a long piece (paywalled) that Trump's view of the United States and the American justice system has darkened considerably since 2016. But what the Times didn't acknowledge is that Trump now has every reason to view American law as hopelessly politicized and prosecutors as targeting him. Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of the three other indictments Trump faces, the Manhattan case is a travesty, a poison pill that no amount of sugarcoating can hide. Perhaps recognizing this uncomfortable truth, the Times ran an (paywalled) op-ed today from a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office claiming that the indictment "is not really about election interference, nor is it a politically motivated attempt to criminalize a benign personal deal. Boring as it may sound, it is a case about business integrity." This is nonsense, of course, and not just because no similar case has ever been charged as a felony. Colangelo's own words to the jury belie any effort to normalize this case. Win or lose, the Manhattan district attorney's office has made a terrible mistake. At best, it has opened the way for partisan local prosecutors in all 50 states to look for any excuse to interfere in federal elections. And if Trump wins this fall, he will be in a position to unleash federal law enforcement on his opponents. He shouldn't, of course. [N.S.: Why not?! He'd be a fool not to!] But after this indictment, even a man far more patient and forgiving than Donald Trump would have a hard time not wanting revenge. |
hummus nazis changed cease-fire deal to count bodies of hostages it had raped, tortured, and murdered, as if they were alive, in proposed prisoner swap, and to end the war it started, which Israel will not accept
By N.S.
"hamas changed cease-fire deal to let them include bodies of dead hostages in prisoner swap: report" "hamas changed cease-fire deal to count hostages as 'alive' or 'bodies' in proposed prisoner swap: report"
"the deal signed by hamas also included an end to the war in gaza -- something the Israeli side said it would not accept."
Sir Cannon of House Who Cares "Well who's fault is that? Indiscriminate bombing everywhere then precision bombing of day care centers and maternity wards will kind of knock off a few of the hostages don't ya think?"
N.S.: You mean the hostages the hummus nazis raped, tortured, and murdered?
Allan "Unfortunately, Israels has created more anger with their genocide campaign. God bless all people."
N.S.: That's the same thing the not zees said about the Holocaust. So, the Jews committed "genocide" against the not zees on October 7th?
How can Netanyahu negotiate a deal with the very terrorist group he has pledged to destroy?
Allan "And so you are advocating the killing of about40,000 Israeli citizens, mostly women and children? That would also be genocide and in contravention of international law,"
N.S.: That's not at all what he said. What you said sounds like something hummus would say. And there is no "international law."
Omen55 "That change means the hostages are dead.
"The post censure rejected my reply.
"So use your imagination since they can't edit it."
JS Alexander "Yep. The posts wants to make hamas look good which won’t be forgotten."
N.S.: The post and fake president/real gangster Joe Biden both clearly support the not zee hummus terrorists.
https://nypost.com/2024/05/06/world-news/hamas-changed-ceasefire-deal-to-count-dead-hostages-report/
"hamas changed cease-fire deal to let them include bodies of dead hostages in prisoner swap: report" "hamas changed cease-fire deal to count hostages as 'alive' or 'bodies' in proposed prisoner swap: report"
"the deal signed by hamas also included an end to the war in gaza -- something the Israeli side said it would not accept."
Sir Cannon of House Who Cares "Well who's fault is that? Indiscriminate bombing everywhere then precision bombing of day care centers and maternity wards will kind of knock off a few of the hostages don't ya think?"
N.S.: You mean the hostages the hummus nazis raped, tortured, and murdered?
Allan "Unfortunately, Israels has created more anger with their genocide campaign. God bless all people."
N.S.: That's the same thing the not zees said about the Holocaust. So, the Jews committed "genocide" against the not zees on October 7th?
How can Netanyahu negotiate a deal with the very terrorist group he has pledged to destroy?
Allan "And so you are advocating the killing of about40,000 Israeli citizens, mostly women and children? That would also be genocide and in contravention of international law,"
N.S.: That's not at all what he said. What you said sounds like something hummus would say. And there is no "international law."
Omen55 "That change means the hostages are dead.
"The post censure rejected my reply.
"So use your imagination since they can't edit it."
JS Alexander "Yep. The posts wants to make hamas look good which won’t be forgotten."
N.S.: The post and fake president/real gangster Joe Biden both clearly support the not zee hummus terrorists.
https://nypost.com/2024/05/06/world-news/hamas-changed-ceasefire-deal-to-count-dead-hostages-report/
Another darkie does well in the Turd World of banking
By R.C.
monday, may 6, 2024 at 08:19:25 p.m. edt
Another darkie does well in the Turd World of banking
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunjan-kedia-3746b727/
More CRA horse--it.
monday, may 6, 2024 at 08:19:25 p.m. edt
Another darkie does well in the Turd World of banking
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunjan-kedia-3746b727/
More CRA horse--it.
fun facts on britain today
By A Colleague
the mayor of London is a moslem.
the mayor of birmingham is a moslem.
The mayor of leeds is moslem.
mayor of blackburn - moslem.
the mayor of sheffield is a moslem.
the mayor of oxford is a moslem.
the mayor of luton is a moslem.
the mayor of oldham is moslem.
the mayor of rochdale is moslem.
All this was achieved by only four million moslems out of 66 million people in england: Today there are over 3,000 mosques in england. There are over 130 sharia courts. There are more than 50 sharia councils. 78 percent of moslem women do not work, receive state support and free accommodation.
63 percent of moslems do not work, receive state support and free housing.
State-supported moslem families with an average of six to eight children receive free accommodation.
Now every school in the uk is required to teach lessons about islam. Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?
the mayor of London is a moslem.
the mayor of birmingham is a moslem.
The mayor of leeds is moslem.
mayor of blackburn - moslem.
the mayor of sheffield is a moslem.
the mayor of oxford is a moslem.
the mayor of luton is a moslem.
the mayor of oldham is moslem.
the mayor of rochdale is moslem.
All this was achieved by only four million moslems out of 66 million people in england: Today there are over 3,000 mosques in england. There are over 130 sharia courts. There are more than 50 sharia councils. 78 percent of moslem women do not work, receive state support and free accommodation.
63 percent of moslems do not work, receive state support and free housing.
State-supported moslem families with an average of six to eight children receive free accommodation.
Now every school in the uk is required to teach lessons about islam. Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?
Sunday, May 05, 2024
breaking: abc fires incompetent, light, bright, and damn near White affirmative action news president Kim Godwin (mug shot)
By N.S.
"breaking: embattled abc news president Kim Godwin steps down"
"'I have decided to retire from broadcast journalism,' Godwin said in a memo to staff and obtained by the post."
That must mean that they paid her a severance deal adequate for her to live off of for a few weeks (she's black). Whatever it is, it would hold a White over for life.
When you're an affirmative action hire, they pay you to leave. If you're a White guy, they threaten to get security to drag you out. Then again, when a white female boss pulled that stunt on me once, I challenged her: What are they gonna go?!," and she backed off.
https://nypost.com/2024/05/05/business/embattled-abc-news-president-kim-godwin-steps-down-sources/
"breaking: embattled abc news president Kim Godwin steps down"
"'I have decided to retire from broadcast journalism,' Godwin said in a memo to staff and obtained by the post."
That must mean that they paid her a severance deal adequate for her to live off of for a few weeks (she's black). Whatever it is, it would hold a White over for life.
When you're an affirmative action hire, they pay you to leave. If you're a White guy, they threaten to get security to drag you out. Then again, when a white female boss pulled that stunt on me once, I challenged her: What are they gonna go?!," and she backed off.
https://nypost.com/2024/05/05/business/embattled-abc-news-president-kim-godwin-steps-down-sources/
Another hidden figures-style hoax: Two black HS students “solve” an “unsolvable” math problem and are now being hailed as modern day hidden figures heroes
By Jerry PDX
Two black HS students “solve” an “unsolvable” math problem and are now being hailed as modern day hidden figures heroes:
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/05/05/60-minutes-called-out-over-claim-two-high-school-seniors-solved-impossible-theorem-1457325/
Problem is, it had already been solved about 15 yrs. ago buy a White, who had a more efficient solution than they did.
Didn't stop 60 Minutes from running with the story. They just saw black skin and fell all over themselves to get this story out there.
Two black HS students “solve” an “unsolvable” math problem and are now being hailed as modern day hidden figures heroes:
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/05/05/60-minutes-called-out-over-claim-two-high-school-seniors-solved-impossible-theorem-1457325/
Problem is, it had already been solved about 15 yrs. ago buy a White, who had a more efficient solution than they did.
Didn't stop 60 Minutes from running with the story. They just saw black skin and fell all over themselves to get this story out there.
s--thole de mayo: cinco de mayo parade in chicago canceled, as fight between latin kings and satan’s disciples breaks out (video)
By R.C.
sunday, may 5, 2024 at 10:58:54 p.m. edt
cinco de mayo parade in chicago canceled as explosive fight between latin kings and rival gang satan’s disciples breaks out in broad daylight (video)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/cinco-de-mayo-parade-chicago-canceled-as-latin/
s--thole de mayo.
ole!
sunday, may 5, 2024 at 10:58:54 p.m. edt
cinco de mayo parade in chicago canceled as explosive fight between latin kings and rival gang satan’s disciples breaks out in broad daylight (video)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/cinco-de-mayo-parade-chicago-canceled-as-latin/
s--thole de mayo.
ole!
Harvard medical school (graphic, grim humor)
By An Old Friend
sunday, may 5, 2024 at 08:37:20 p.m. edtHarvard medical school
Greetings to you, minority white comrade, from Harvard Medical School. How about a little dance?
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1787093247728218519 (one minute)
Columbia law neo-Nazis demand they be rewarded for their terrorism! (video)
By N.S.
This is what comes of neither expelling nor prosecuting terrorists.
This is what comes of neither expelling nor prosecuting terrorists.
NEW: Columbia Law students are demanding that the school cancel finals and pass all students because they are so traumatized from NYPD "violence" they witnessed last week.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 6, 2024
LMAO.
The sensitive and "shaken" students say they're so upset by police in riot gear that they can't… pic.twitter.com/Ek9bcrBjWG
Chords of Mystic Memory: Spielberg’s Homage to Ford in Saving Private Ryan
By Nicholas Stix
When one thinks of that phrase, one thinks first of Mr. Lincoln, and then of music.
Those of us of a certain age were taught American folk songs very young, in school, at sleepaway camp, movie theaters (“follow the bouncing ball”), on tv, and by our parents.
Movies, even ballets, were full of such music. John Ford (1894-1973) movies were full of folk songs, like “Red River Valley,” even in his World War II classic, They were Expendable (1945).
In Hugo Friedhofer’s (1901-1981) at times emotionally overwhelming score to the greatest picture ever made, combat veteran William Wyler’s (1902-1981) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Friedhofer took a theme from Aaron Copland’s (1900-1990) ballet score, Billy the Kid (1938), signifying the hectic pace of town, as opposed to ranch life, and slowed it down, to express the romantic and domestic hopes of disabled, returning combat veteran Homer Parrish’s fiance, his next door neighbor Wilma. (“Wilma’s Theme” runs from 0:40-2:36 here).
Over 40 years later, when the at times stunning dramatic series China Beach (1988-1991), about the Vietnam War alternated, beginning with its third season, between showing veterans during the war, and them coping with civilian life many years later, composer-actor John Rubinstein took Copland’s theme and alternated it with the theme Rubinstein had written for the show. The veterans’ time “in country” had been the best years of their lives. How many people would have caught that? It was a wonderful, historical and spiritual treat for the few who did.
However, there are other such “chords” of mystic memory, which are images or words.
Ford and his greatest student, John Wayne (1907-1979), understood that perfectly.
At the end of Ford’s masterpiece of masterpieces, The Searchers (1956), Wayne, as Indian-killer Ethan Edwards, turns and faces the camera and the house of his late mother, brother, sister-in-law (the secret love of his life), and niece and nephew, the women gang-raped and all of them slaughtered by the Comanche at different times, and grabs the crook of his left arm with his right hand. It was a sign that Wayne’s childhood movie idol, the late Harry Carey (1878-1947), sometimes made. It stood for rectitude. Wayne did that for Carey’s widow, Olive (1896-1988), who was silently standing off-camera, tears flowing down her cheeks; for Harry Carey fans everywhere; and for everyone else watching the picture.
In Ford’s Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), about the Revolutionary War, as Gil Martin (Henry Fonda, 1905-1982) is marching off to war, his wife, Lana (Claudette Colbert 1903-1996) stands atop bales of hay, watching him, and slumps onto her side.
That image would make quite the impression on Steven Spielberg (1946-). Circa 1962, Ford would give the teenaged Spielberg a brief, private audience.
Fifty-six years later, when Spielberg made his own masterpiece of masterpieces, Saving Private Ryan (1998), there is a seven-and-a-half minute sequence which is as stunning as anything I’ve ever seen on the screen.
We see, through DoP Janusz Kaminski’s (1959-) lens, a dim office at the War Department, just after D-Day, full of women typing condolence letters to the families of servicemen who had fallen in battle (though not just at Normandy). Everything is perfect—the period dresses, the manual typewriters, the office furniture, the uniforms worn by the wounded officers who are their supervisors, including retired Marine and technical advisor, Capt. Dale Dye (1944-, though wearing an Army uniform), with one uniform arm pinned back, thanks to costume designer Joanna Johnston and set decorator Lisa Dean Kavanaugh.
The head secretary sees a disturbing repetition. Three of the KIA letters are for young men named Ryan, from the same Iowa farm family. She takes the letters to her supervisor, who takes them up the line. The officers determine that a fourth Ryan brother had parachuted in with the 101st Airborne, and is missing in action somewhere in Normandy.
The officers go all the way to the top: Five-star General of the Army, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George C. Marshall (1880-1959).
Gen. Marshall retrieves one of the most famous letters in American history, a condolence note to a Mrs. Bixby in Boston, who had lost five sons in battle. At first, Gen. Marshall reads the letter off the page, but about halfway through, he closes his eyes and recites it by heart. He has read this letter many times.
“Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
“Abraham Lincoln”
That was Harve Presnell (1933-2009), as Gen. Marshall.
Gen. Marshall declares that the fourth Ryan boy is still alive, and orders his subordinates find and rescue him.
And all this plays out to John Williams’ (1932-) mournful score.
But that wasn’t even Spielberg’s homage to Ford!
My late Mom (1930-2022) liked to say “genius is infinite attention to detail.”
Spielberg’s homage lasted only a few seconds, before the scene with Gen. Marshall.
As an Army automobile drives up to the Ryan farm, with a Catholic chaplain and an officer, Mrs. Ryan is watching from her kitchen window, as she washes the dishes. That window was perfectly decorated, with four stars for four boys. Just inside the front door, there’s a photo of the four brothers, all in uniform, wearing their helmets, perched atop the family radio.
Immediately, she knows this is terrible news. Even I knew, growing up, from old WWII movies, that “news” for a family, usually in the form of a telegram, was always terrible. (My Great Aunt Rose Goodman got such a telegram, when my cousin, Capt. Howard “Barney O’Goodman,” 25, got it from a Jap sniper on Cape Gloucester, “because he exposed himself to spot the enemy rather than order one of his men to do it.” Every family had its heroes; we were a nation of heroes!)
But this wasn’t some kid on a bicycle, delivering a telegram. It had to be worse than terrible.
Mrs. Ryan staggers out to her porch, and just as the men alight from the official vehicle, slumps onto her left hip.
Commenters at youtube claimed the actress was some sort of “genius.” Actually, she did exactly what Spielberg told her to do—to recreate Claudette Colbert’s pose in Drums Along the Mohawk.
And that’s how a middle-aged man showed his reverence and gratitude to the late master who had once permitted him, as a teenager, into his inner sanctum for a minute or two.
When one thinks of that phrase, one thinks first of Mr. Lincoln, and then of music.
Those of us of a certain age were taught American folk songs very young, in school, at sleepaway camp, movie theaters (“follow the bouncing ball”), on tv, and by our parents.
Movies, even ballets, were full of such music. John Ford (1894-1973) movies were full of folk songs, like “Red River Valley,” even in his World War II classic, They were Expendable (1945).
In Hugo Friedhofer’s (1901-1981) at times emotionally overwhelming score to the greatest picture ever made, combat veteran William Wyler’s (1902-1981) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Friedhofer took a theme from Aaron Copland’s (1900-1990) ballet score, Billy the Kid (1938), signifying the hectic pace of town, as opposed to ranch life, and slowed it down, to express the romantic and domestic hopes of disabled, returning combat veteran Homer Parrish’s fiance, his next door neighbor Wilma. (“Wilma’s Theme” runs from 0:40-2:36 here).
Over 40 years later, when the at times stunning dramatic series China Beach (1988-1991), about the Vietnam War alternated, beginning with its third season, between showing veterans during the war, and them coping with civilian life many years later, composer-actor John Rubinstein took Copland’s theme and alternated it with the theme Rubinstein had written for the show. The veterans’ time “in country” had been the best years of their lives. How many people would have caught that? It was a wonderful, historical and spiritual treat for the few who did.
However, there are other such “chords” of mystic memory, which are images or words.
Ford and his greatest student, John Wayne (1907-1979), understood that perfectly.
At the end of Ford’s masterpiece of masterpieces, The Searchers (1956), Wayne, as Indian-killer Ethan Edwards, turns and faces the camera and the house of his late mother, brother, sister-in-law (the secret love of his life), and niece and nephew, the women gang-raped and all of them slaughtered by the Comanche at different times, and grabs the crook of his left arm with his right hand. It was a sign that Wayne’s childhood movie idol, the late Harry Carey (1878-1947), sometimes made. It stood for rectitude. Wayne did that for Carey’s widow, Olive (1896-1988), who was silently standing off-camera, tears flowing down her cheeks; for Harry Carey fans everywhere; and for everyone else watching the picture.
In Ford’s Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), about the Revolutionary War, as Gil Martin (Henry Fonda, 1905-1982) is marching off to war, his wife, Lana (Claudette Colbert 1903-1996) stands atop bales of hay, watching him, and slumps onto her side.
That image would make quite the impression on Steven Spielberg (1946-). Circa 1962, Ford would give the teenaged Spielberg a brief, private audience.
Fifty-six years later, when Spielberg made his own masterpiece of masterpieces, Saving Private Ryan (1998), there is a seven-and-a-half minute sequence which is as stunning as anything I’ve ever seen on the screen.
We see, through DoP Janusz Kaminski’s (1959-) lens, a dim office at the War Department, just after D-Day, full of women typing condolence letters to the families of servicemen who had fallen in battle (though not just at Normandy). Everything is perfect—the period dresses, the manual typewriters, the office furniture, the uniforms worn by the wounded officers who are their supervisors, including retired Marine and technical advisor, Capt. Dale Dye (1944-, though wearing an Army uniform), with one uniform arm pinned back, thanks to costume designer Joanna Johnston and set decorator Lisa Dean Kavanaugh.
The head secretary sees a disturbing repetition. Three of the KIA letters are for young men named Ryan, from the same Iowa farm family. She takes the letters to her supervisor, who takes them up the line. The officers determine that a fourth Ryan brother had parachuted in with the 101st Airborne, and is missing in action somewhere in Normandy.
The officers go all the way to the top: Five-star General of the Army, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George C. Marshall (1880-1959).
Gen. Marshall retrieves one of the most famous letters in American history, a condolence note to a Mrs. Bixby in Boston, who had lost five sons in battle. At first, Gen. Marshall reads the letter off the page, but about halfway through, he closes his eyes and recites it by heart. He has read this letter many times.
“Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
“Abraham Lincoln”
That was Harve Presnell (1933-2009), as Gen. Marshall.
Gen. Marshall declares that the fourth Ryan boy is still alive, and orders his subordinates find and rescue him.
And all this plays out to John Williams’ (1932-) mournful score.
But that wasn’t even Spielberg’s homage to Ford!
My late Mom (1930-2022) liked to say “genius is infinite attention to detail.”
Spielberg’s homage lasted only a few seconds, before the scene with Gen. Marshall.
As an Army automobile drives up to the Ryan farm, with a Catholic chaplain and an officer, Mrs. Ryan is watching from her kitchen window, as she washes the dishes. That window was perfectly decorated, with four stars for four boys. Just inside the front door, there’s a photo of the four brothers, all in uniform, wearing their helmets, perched atop the family radio.
Immediately, she knows this is terrible news. Even I knew, growing up, from old WWII movies, that “news” for a family, usually in the form of a telegram, was always terrible. (My Great Aunt Rose Goodman got such a telegram, when my cousin, Capt. Howard “Barney O’Goodman,” 25, got it from a Jap sniper on Cape Gloucester, “because he exposed himself to spot the enemy rather than order one of his men to do it.” Every family had its heroes; we were a nation of heroes!)
But this wasn’t some kid on a bicycle, delivering a telegram. It had to be worse than terrible.
Mrs. Ryan staggers out to her porch, and just as the men alight from the official vehicle, slumps onto her left hip.
Commenters at youtube claimed the actress was some sort of “genius.” Actually, she did exactly what Spielberg told her to do—to recreate Claudette Colbert’s pose in Drums Along the Mohawk.
And that’s how a middle-aged man showed his reverence and gratitude to the late master who had once permitted him, as a teenager, into his inner sanctum for a minute or two.
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