Friday's Frantic Absurdities: A Hollywood Icon Passes as a Florida Icon Prepares to Run
The great James Caan died on Thursday.
Caan played a lot of tough guy roles, like Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, but he was also a terrific comedic actor, with a great sense of timing. His role in “Elf” is obviously iconic, but if you want to catch a bit of nostalgia that will keep you laughing for two hours, go find a little-remembered 1974 flick he did with another great comedic actor, Alan Arkin, called “Freebie and the Bean.”
Trust me on this.
But the real James Caan afficionados, like yours truly, will also consider his role as “Mississippi” in the 1966 John Wayne vehicle “El Dorado” to be one of his most enduring characters. Mississippi’s real name happened to be Alan Bourdillion Trahearn, but he told the Duke that his friends just called him by his birth state to keep things simple.
James Caan with John Wayne and Gabby Hayes in the 1966 film, “El Dorado.”
That running gag throughout El Dorado became even more enduring when, in his role as casino boss Ed Deline in the “Las Vegas” TV series, Caan used Alan Bourdillion Trahearn as an alias during an undercover operation. It was a gag that only the most discerning Caan fan would get. I was one of those fans, and had to explain it to my son while we were watching the episode together.
RIP, James Caan, and thanks for the memories.
Let’s move on…
James Caan was 82 years old, the same age Old Joe Biden will be on January 20, 2025, the day our next hopefully duly-elected president will be sworn into office. Think about that, as you consider Biden’s promises to run for a second term.
Speaking of our national Sock Puppet-in-Chief, his evil, elder-abusing handlers in the White House are promising they will force him out onto his fake White House sound stage on Friday to announce yet another executive order, this one promoting more abortions:
Here’s an excerpt from that story at Fox News:
Two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden plans to sign an executive order on abortion access Friday, three sources familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press.
The White House said Biden will speak Friday morning "on protecting access to reproductive health care services." He is expected to outline actions to attempt to mitigate some potential penalties women seeking abortion may face after the ruling, but are limited in their ability to safeguard access to abortion nationwide.
Biden is expected to instruct the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back against any state efforts to limit a woman’s ability to go across state lines for a legal abortion or to get federally approved abortion medication, according to the AP report.
In a further attempt to protect women seeking an abortion, Biden’s executive order will also direct agencies to work to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with authorities. He will also ask the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the privacy of those seeking information about reproductive care online.
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So, it will be an order to “protect” women from the ZERO states that are trying to put them in jail for crossing state lines to have an abortion. Just another bit of cynical Democrat fakery designed to “solve” a “problem” they’ve made up out of their own talking points.
These people are so damn disgusting.
In our renewable energy update, CNBC reported Thursday that GE and other companies are in the process of building the biggest mass bird-killing machines on Earth up in Martha’s Vineyard:
Here’s an excerpt from that story:
In the not too distant future, waters 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard will be home to a potentially crucial part of America’s energy future: the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1, a project that’s been described as “the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.”
Construction of Vineyard Wind 1 started last year, and the facility will use 13 MW versions of GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X turbines. With a height of up to 260 meters (853 feet), a rotor diameter of 220 meters and 107-meter blades, the Haliade-X is part of a new generation of turbines set to be installed in the years ahead.
In addition to GE, other companies are getting in on the big turbine act. In Aug. 2021, China’s MingYang Smart Energy released details of a 264-meter tall design that will use 118-meter blades.
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That’s right: The towers will be 260 meters (853 feet) tall, almost as tall as the tallest building in downtown Houston, and the blades will be 107 meters long, longer than an American football field.
Of course, the planned wind farm featuring these monsters will lie far out in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard, out 15 miles from shore and thus conveniently over the horizon, meaning that the carnage they will cause among the sea bird population will take place safely away from prying eyes and cameras. All to generate energy we do not need and which, when emissions are considered from cradle to grave, creates pretty much no environmental benefit whatsoever.
But it will allow GE and the other companies involved in the massive project to collect billions of dollars in state and federal government subsidies, which is what this rent-seeking industry is really all about.
Again, these people are disgusting.
While all the speculation among Republicans and 2024 has focused this week on when Donald Trump will announce his intention to run again, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was quietly making plans of his own:
Here’s an excerpt from the story at Hotair, which cites a story from CNBC:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is planning a private fundraiser in Utah later this month that is expected to draw some of the country’s wealthiest Republican donors as he signals a possible run for president in 2024.
DeSantis is set to head to Utah the week of July 18 for the private gathering, according to people familiar with the matter. Many asked not to be identified because the campaign is trying to keep the private event from getting too much public attention…
A person helping organize the fundraiser this month said many donors from across the country have been invited and will attend the gathering in Utah, but they are trying to keep Trump from taking notice. Invites have been sent verbally, instead of by email, to limit any paper trail, this person said. Donors have been told that the meetings with DeSantis in Utah is likely to start early in the day on July 19.
The other reason DeSantis is keeping the event under the radar, this person added, is to avoid looking like he is preparing to take on Trump in the 2024 Republican primary and provoking the former president’s ire.
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Oh, DeSantis will provoke Trump’s ire soon enough - that’s an inevitability. Just ask Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio about that one.
Of course, what DeSantis has that those three Senators who challenged Trump in 2016 did not is a record of sustained success as the chief executive of one of the nation’s four most populous states. Even though polls taken today show Trump with a dominating lead over DeSantis among likely GOP primary voters (the latest one I saw had Trump leading by 56-16), we are still 18 months out from when the first primaries take place in January, 2024.
Trump may well be the Republican nominee in 2024, but anyone who thinks that prospect is a foregone conclusion as we sit here today should think again. DeSantis is not a guy who enjoys wasting time, and he not wasting his time with this coming trip out to Utah.
That is all.
“Cinderella Liberty” is another great James Caan film from the 70s.
RIP James Caan.
As far as DeSantis running against Trump goes I sorta hope he doesn't if Trump decides to run. Trump and the nation endured a lot of crap, but he got three conservative justices on the SCOTUS. For that he deserves a second term. The trifecta I would love to see happen is Trump 2024, DeSantis 2028 & 2032, BOOM!