Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 290

Day at the Ballpark

Leaving soon to attend Dodgers-Mets game in NYC with the estimable Robert Jay Lifton (my co-author on two books and many articles).   Back in the 1980s and 1990s we made this a nearly annual event, but now a few years have passed.  Robert is huge Dodgers fan--having grown up in Brooklyn--and has (and needs) a keen sense of humor, despite the nickname recently bestowed on him by the NYT, "Dr. Hiroshima." (Could have been worse, I guess: "Dr. Nazi Doctors'?)  Actually for many years he signed his notes to me simply "Lasorda."  My photo at left, from right field.

The 'Jon Stewart' of Egypt Visits Jon Stewart

Jon did a memorable segment recently about his arrest and now the funnyman from Cairo pays a visit.  Here's riotous extended interview (and there's a Part II).


The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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More False Police/Media Reporting on Boat Capture

We suggested at the time that this would happen and now if this brand new Wash Post story is to be believed it has:  Much of what police, and then the media, told us about the siege of that boat in Watertown leading to capture of younger bro suspect turned out to be wrong.  Apparently he had no weapons (we were told he had one or even more); he never fired on cops there; that well-recorded "gunfight" was just police firing dozens of rounds into the boat, and the story about him maybe shooting himself in the neck in a suicide attempt now seems bogus (he may have been shot through the boat).  All of this raises questions about the true desire to take him alive--in fact, it seems like a miracle that he did survive.

UPDATE  And yet another wrong statement (possibly to cover up a huge error):  Police said for days that the boat was outside the search sight that day.  Now police admit it was within the search zone and a "huge error" was made. 

When Dylan Met Donovan

Forty-eight years ago (ouch) next week, Bob Dylan toured England, the experience famously captured by D.A. Pennebaker for his groundbreaking doc, Don't Look Back.   Dylan had already recorded his first electric album but was touring acoustic and his real coming out at Newport was still a few weeks off.  He'd write "Like a Rolling Stone" a month later.  I'd catch him, live, with the Hawks, that November.

Anyway:  One of the most famous scenes in the movie relates to young folkie Donovan, who was getting a lot of press while Bob was there, and became a kind of running gag, with Bob tacking up his press clippings in hotel rooms and all that.  Finally, Donovan appears in Dylan's room at party, and sings a somewhat sappy song for Bob.  Dylan then cruelly, you might say, debuts "It's All Over Baby Blue"--the two songs are not even on the same planet--while Donovan good-naturedly looks on, even as Bob laughs as he sings about "the vagabond who is rapping at your door / is standing in the clothes that you once wore."

Bieber Fans Ask: Who the Hell is This Leonard Cohen Guy?

Fun post here on reaction of Justin Bieber fans when Leonard Cohen (almost four times his age) beat him out for top Juno Award the other night (that's sort of Grammys for Canadians).   Some choice comments from the Beliebers:

Who is this Leonard you speak of?

It appears Justin Bieber lost something to Leonard 'who's that?' Cohen?

Is it bad that I am Canadian and have no clue who 'Leonard Cohen' is?

ok what the flying fuck? WHO THE FUCK IS THIS LEONARD COHEN GUY!??!?! how the fuck did he win the JUNO like wtf is happening us?!?!?!!?

You Panting to Me?

Bob 'n Bub: I have no idea what this means but the Tribeca Film Fest in NYC seems to think it's a big deal and the photo of the year bringing together one of its founder, Mr. DeNiro and a cat famous for something or other, Lil Bub.  So here they are, and now you can explain it to me.

Five Shot Dead in Illinois

Yes, I know, there were dozens seriously injured in Boston, with a number of amputations, but the three dead is equaled or topped at least once a week in multiple shootings around the USA.   Today's example:  five killed overnight in Illinois.  Suspect was on the loose for a couple of hours, then captured.  "The pastor of Manchester Baptist Church tells KSDK-TV that the shootings took place inside a public housing complex. At least one of the victims is a child, according to the Scott County Sheriff's Department."  Apparently one girl survived.  These were the first murders in the town in 43 years. 

Updates on Texas Plant Disaster

My hot new piece at The Nation yesterday found found famed EPA whistleblower calls for criminal probe of Texas fertilizer plant--and claims media falling down on the job, citing NYT, Reuters, Huff Post.  Now today a major update (among several) from Randy Loftis of the Dallas Morning News, who I mentioned in my piece.  How's this for an opener:

Texas’ environmental agency knew in 2006 that West Fertilizer Co. was handling 2,400 tons a year of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate in a warehouse near schools, houses and a nursing home, documents show.  The notation in a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permit form apparently raised no concerns, either internally or with other agencies, about explosion risks or the proper management of a chemical already notorious in Texas history for its deadly qualities when heated to extreme temperatures or exposed to shock.

My New Book Out Today: "Hollywood Bomb"

This is a disturbing--if rollicking--tale that I've written about in brief for a few years but finally have explored at length, and it's published today in e-book form: Hollywood Bomb:  Harry S. Truman and the Unmaking of 'The Most Important' Movie Ever Made (Sinclair Books).  That's a poster for the 1947 MGM film at left, and you'll find the trailer below.  It's my 15th book, if you're keeping score at home, and can be read on iPads, Kindles, and so on.

A film titled The Beginning or the End was to be, in the words of MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer, "the most important" movie ever made.  But that was before it was distorted, even censored, with President Truman playing a key role.  Continuing the book blurb:

Hollywood Bomb traces the wild, and largely untold, episode to just hours after the first atomic device was exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. MGM was already trying to sew up exclusive rights to make the first celluloid epic about The Bomb.  A rival studio raced to catch up with a script written by...Ayn Rand.

It seemed, for a time, that the big-budget MGM film would serve as a warning to mankind about the dangers of going too far down the nuclear path, with the potential to rally public opinion against The Bomb before it was too late to halt an arms race that would eventually bring 50,000 nuclear warheads into the world.  It even questioned Truman's decision to drop the bomb.

But that was before the making, and unmaking, of The Beginning or the End ended that chance, thanks in large part to intervention by the U.S. military and President Truman. At the White House, Truman even edited several versions of the script, deleting parts of his dialogue and adding distortions to buoy his decision to drop the bomb.

And, in what must have been a first for Hollywood, actors slated to play two presidents in the same movie were fired after protests—from a former First Lady (Eleanor Roosevelt) and from the sitting President (Truman)

Also intimately involved in this lively, often amazing tale, was a colorful cast of supporting players, including (besides Ayn Rand) Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, producer Hal Wallis, actors Donna Reed, Hume Cronyn and Brian Donlevy, Walter Lippmann,  and Cardinal Spellman, among others.

My two previous books on this general subject were Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton) and Atomic Cover-up.  Here's the trailer.  You might want to skip to  the 3:00 minute mark to sail past the fake and dopey "Inquiring Reporter" intro.

So Much for 'Austerity'

You may have read about that UMass-Amherst student who found a mistaken number in an Excel program that debunked that study oft-cited by GOPers to "prove" that we need super austerity, now.  Last night Stephen Colbert did a fun segment (and later had the student in the studio).


The Colbert Report
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