Joe Bauer

Watched Mission Impossible II yesterday.

Released 20 years ago.

Typical Hollywood hyped fiction / escapist action fare but still couldn't help but notice a few ominous similarities in the story and plot line to the current coronavirus pandemic.

And one cannot totally disbelieve that there is and will be much political intrigue involved with the pandemic and it's effect on every aspect of living worldwide. And especially any vaccines or medicines created to treat it.

5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

OO7 and trash TV at a dinner table in Carmel? 

Talk about the Odd Couple.

You've been up there for 67 years?  Beautiful place: Monterrey, Carmel, Santa Cruz. 

DIdn't Mae Brussell live there? Did you listen to her show?

Yes, of course. She was very well known here for a long time. Back at that time when home prices hadn't exploded and the rents were affordable we had a very large, young and progressive and liberal community here.

Very hippie-ish.

Some thought she was over-the-top.

However, I had a very open mind about what she reported in her constant local radio broadcasts.

At that time, it seemed very few knew her true background as a child of the I.Magnin family and her educational background. The only negative to me was she would talk so fast and go on for so long without any break or even a decent pause in her reporting. She could exhaust you in that way and she would throw out so much information with each broadcast, it was hard to keep up.

As I have mentioned, I watched Jack Ruby shoot Oswald on live TV on 11,24,1963. I was 12.

From that second on I have always believed there was much more to the JFK assassination than what the WC told us.

However, my entire life until about 30 was mostly a struggle to simply survive and pay the rent. I was extremely ill equipped to making a living beyond low wage manual labor work.

I married at 30 and was totally occupied simply being a working spouse and involved father until my mid-forties.

I mention this personal history to explain why it wasn't until after the age of 50 that I gave any time at all to studying the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations with any reading.

My first books were Lane's "Rush To Judgement" and Garrison's "On The Trail Of The Assassins."

Hadn't read much more than that except excerpts of many others throughout the years. A crazy mix of Mailer to Marrs to whoever. Posner's "Case Closed" was in this mix as well.

Stone's "JFK"  reignited my interest and later the "Men Who Killed Kennedy" series.

Bugliosi's book was too long to read except in chunks, but it simply angered me with it's pompousness and being filled with constantly repeated personal insults of conspiracy believers.

Everything else I know I have learned from this forum or being directed to other readings from it.

I read contrary pieces like McAdams and random pieces from other WC propagandists as well when they pop up now and then.

I shouldn't be posting here except rarely and perhaps with just a few well pondered and coherent questions. I know my doing so dilutes the higher plane research content. 

Ahhh, but after years of simply reading everything as a non-member I finally broke mentally and took the leap into posting, figuring I might as well get some attention sharing regards "at least" my passion for the JFK, RFK and MLK truth even if it embarrasses me and lowers the forum's high research bar.

I know that's a very selfish indulgence but sometimes when you feel you might not have too many years left, you do crazy stuff you normally wouldn't do. Like telling someone at your 50th high school class reunion that you were madly in love with them back in school? 

I don't know. Just hoping we somehow get through this pandemic now more than anything.

What an odd and coldly inhumane way to be taken out in the end.

16 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

In case anyone was wondering what Garland Park was:

https://www.seemonterey.com/listings/garland-ranch-regional-park/1806/

Joe are you friends or neighbors with Clint Eastwood?

I've seen Clint Eastwood in person maybe 10 times in my 67 years here.

Always from a distance. Never spoke to the man.

He owns the Mission Ranch resort and restaurant a mile South of downtown Carmel, which sits above and overlooks the mouth of the Carmel River and lagoon and with an unobstructed view of Point Lobos. They apparently have a good reputation for food and often someone is playing the piano next to the bar which is connected to the restaurant itself. Outdoor seating with that incredible view is available. Nice place. 

Years ago it was reported Clint used to come into the bar and sit and play the piano as well.

I don't think that happens anymore. He is one year shy of 90 now.

Years ago I heard he was fairly approachable. I just don't know anything about him otherwise.

I did see Doris Day 2 or so days a week for a few years. On those days she would arrive at mid-morning as her assistant would drive her to the entrance of her hotel here in downtown Carmel named the Cypress Inn so she could pick up her mail.

In a somewhat junky car, at least not fancy, Ms. Day would be totally dressed down and wearing a ball cap and sunglasses.

Ms. Day would never leave the car. It was my job to give her mail which was sent to the hotel. I would get it and walk down the front steps to the car and she would roll down her passenger side window, reach out and take her mail and say simply..."thank you."

Funny, in all the years I worked at the Cypress Inn, that is the only communication I ever had with Doris Day. She hardly ever came into the hotel personally ( maybe twice)  in my entire time there.

I did have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with her son Terry Melcher as he was part owner and came into the hotel from time to time.

What a great, friendly and down to earth person he was. Nobody was beneath him. He treated everyone with the same warmth and respect. His passing was tragic. Ms. Day never got over it from what I heard.

Of course living and working here on the Carmel/Pebble Beach side of the Peninsula for so long I have seen at least 100 famous persons here.

I can't say I ever spoke to any of them one-on-one.

It was neat to be able to come home from work at the Cypress Inn though and tell my wife I had seen up close these celebrities.

Carried Nick Clooney's luggage ( George Clooney's dad ) to his room once. Nice guy.

Pet sat Joel Grey's little chihuahua and Barbara Eden's Labra-Doodle at the hotel after hours.

In no particular order, here is a partial list of up close sightings over the years:

Eden and Grey and Clooney.

Betty White, Bruce Willis, Mark Wahlberg, Tom Hanks, Jane Seymour ( her own art show at a local gallery-stunningly beautiful in person ) Joan Baez, Alice Cooper ( he's a big time golfer) Alex Trebeck, Robert Englund, Bing Crosby, Phil Harris, Alice Faye,  Shelley Winters, Paul Anka, countless stars and athletes mostly at the AT&T golf tournament...Joe Montana, Mark McGwire, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Reggie Jackson, Lawrence Taylor and on and on.

Politicians including a former mayor of L.A.. Sat his dog one evening. Leon Panetta who is from here.

Took care of a group for 5 days here at the Cypress Inn once as the concierge/bellman/valet. George Shapiro and family and secretary. Executive producer of Seinfeld.

I've lost track now.

Funny story. I was friends with several local restaurant owners here in Carmel or their managers as I referred guests out as the concierge. One day the owner of Da Giovanni's shared with me a previous night's odd pairing at one of his tables. Jerry Springer and...Sean Connery! Guess they were both golfing at our most prestigious private golf course...The Cypress Point Club.

I get a kick out of seeing celebrities, mostly because I get to come home and tell my wife about this. 

All done now though. Too old. Retired.

19 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

We all feel some pressure Joe. But you're definitely the one who has expressed the most fear and stress. You seem to be reaching out. And I understand that  as you've said you have a lot of underlying conditions.

I wish I could offer you more solace, but  I would say the present precautions you are now taking you will have to continue to take, probably at least through the end of 2020,  or until a vaccination or effective treatment is available. Because while there evidence coming in that younger people or people with few underlying conditions might actually be safer to resume activities  than originally thought. There is no change in the idea that people with a number of underlying conditions should keep away from the general population for their own safety.

However as I've said earlier I don't think that precludes going out to a secluded beach with your wife or any secluded place. Last week, I went out to Garland Park near you out in Carmel Valley. I've never been there before. It was absolutely beautiful!  The place is huge! Miles and miles of roads and trails. You could wear a mask. Stay on the roads but even on trails people are very courteous and try to employ distancing. Start on roads.

With some of the fears and concerns you've expressed. Honestly I do wonder if going to websites where people are always conjecturing about political conspiracy theories are really such a healthy thing.  But of course in normal times, it's easy to separate the wheat from the chaff and that's your own judgment. Besides you're probably hooked anyway. And at least you know you won't get a virus from being here!   heh heh

Anyway, try to relax and try to do things that nurture you and give you a sense of peace. Good Luck!

 

Kirk, you were this close to my home and you didn't contact me to meet you at Garland Park?

How could you?

Ha!

Don't blame you.

Yes, Garland Park is a semi-regular outing for us both.

It is usually packed now versus up to the end of last year.

I am a little surprised however, that you don't see some of the play I insert into my coronavirus posts.

The back scratcher, nut cracker, the outside of disinfection wipe containers ,etc. ?

I am not really as manic as I described. 75% so ... yes.

The bad dreams could just as well be from eating constantly while staying at home and going to bed with a full stomach.

I go out and drive much more than I infer. Who wouldn't when you have this beautiful coast line to see and relax you?

Anyway, thanks for your concern for my personal mental health. And it is so neat to hear of one our forums biggest names actually visiting a natural beauty destination so close to my home.

Wonder if Dylan's new JFK song would have generated even more interest if this pandemic hadn't come forth?

Let us say some genius team discovers a vaccine for the virus in a country such as China, Russia, Iran, Israel or even the U.S.?

Will the powers to be in these countries freely share this with the rest of world, even if it means doing so with their greatest political and ideological adversaries?

Not doing so could lead to...?  Don't even want to speculate.

On 5/7/2020 at 7:11 PM, Stu Wexler said:

Just tellling you why--  not advocating--  but I believe the issue with Delphine Roberts is two-fold for some:

1) She ultimately was not, if I recall, the most cooperative witness for Garrison.

2) She was associated with radical right wing groups like the National States Rights Party.

-Stu

 

Talking to Garrison in the first few years could have been a death sentence.

And if Roberts was ultra right wing why would she say anything that would go against that sentiment such as revealing her revered super right wing boss Banister to be a xxxx regards his association with a commie like Oswald? 

If she was of the same political, social and racial mind set of her boss Banister ( even having an affair with him ) you'd think she would never say anything to disparage him and his legacy.

Her claim about this association would make Banister out to be a XXXX and implicate him in something incredibly bad.

And I just can't see her being paid to expose Banister's association with Oswald.

I am reminded of hip- talking New Orleans attorney Dean Andrews ( who took care of downtown gay boys when they were rounded up courtesy of Clay Bertrand's largess ) and who did some legal work for Oswald as well.

When someone told him Oswald was passing out pamphlets a few blocks away he ran down to confront his former dead beat client to remind him of his unpaid legal fee bill.

When Andrews reached Oswald he asked him what was goin' on...and Andrews claimed Oswald simply responded "It's a job." Oswald was being paid to do that FPFC gig.

Hmmm, who in the world would pay Oswald to do such a thing? Let us guess.

On 5/1/2020 at 9:58 AM, Eddy Bainbridge said:

Most people will have spotted William Harvey leaning on the tree in this photo but how many spotted E Howard Hunt looking from behind Harvey next to the car? 

Eddie G.

That is hilarious! Thank you! I needed a good laugh!

Sorry, but we do have to spread some lightness in this tragic story from time to time to balance it all.

That Oliver Hardy look-a-like in front of the tree, the E.Howard Hunt fedora man, how about the shadow spy figure inside the car in the upper left...and the "junior G-Man" D. Andrews points out?

W.Shelley does have a shotgun barrel thrust just inches from his face! Yes, "just a little" more incentive to follow the DPD officer's instructions to get in the car! Ha!

And weirdly also, these fellows who look to be hauled in for questioning by the cops all seem to be slightly smiling and amused by it all ! ?

Regards the different photos of W. Shelley look-a-likes... my uneducated observation is that the resemblances are so close...they are clearly of the same man.

And I will not dismiss Raphael Cruz Sr. as one of Oswald's fellow leaflet distributors.

Cruz Sr. was living in New Orleans at this exact time ( he was the exact age of Oswald) and Cruz Sr. has never talked about his time in New Orleans, yet he talked much about how politically anti-Castro active he was in Texas just before moving to New Orleans, giving talks to groups etc.

So he moves to the hottest anti-Castro political activity city in the country at the time (next to Miami ) ...and he completely avoids any contact with his fellow anti-Castro compatriots?

Please!

This one-on-one debate between well versed political historian intellectuals Jim Di and W. Neiderhut is one that is enhancing the forum imo.

Very thought provoking.

There are several others here worth mentioning in this regards too.

This world threatening virus could easily spur a wave of conspiracy thought, talk and anxiety beyond any event in our lifetimes if it continues to spread and kill and destabilize entire economies and social orders to almost unbelievable degrees and without a cure for a period of time beyond just months.

In just 4 months alone it has shaken the world in every major medical, political, economic and social way. International trade has been greatly impeded and international travel has nearly come to a stop.

In our own country we are seeing economic stress numbers rivaling those of the great Depression.

We are living in a stressful and depressing social distancing situation beyond anything we have ever imagined except in scary Sci-fi movies or bad dreams.

Here at home and world wide there seems to be a common anxiety bordering on post traumatic stress levels.

I myself am having dreams that are the most bizarre and disturbing I can ever recall.

I am washing my hands more often than someone afflicted with Obsessive-Compulsive disorder!

I am constantly wiping down everything I see including door nobs, table tops, phones, remote controls, lap top keyboards, steering wheels, transmission gear handles, toilet seats and flush handles, pot handles, glasses, grocery store cart handles and just bought grocery containers even my favorite nut cracker and back scratcher!

Heck ... even the containers of our disinfectant wipes! 

It's bordering on manic madness!

Every little pain, itch, twitch, tired feeling, soreness, body warmth, increased heart beat rate, stomach cramp etc. has me worrying " Dear God...do I finally have it ?"

Despite this craziness the one area of thought I refuse to allow my already stressed out and exhausted psyche to wander is the conspiracy realm.

To do so seems like it might be a final line we need not cross for our own mental stability to get through this stressful struggle.

I recently read about the murder of a Chinese born medical researcher living in Pittsburgh, PA ( not sure if he was a naturalized citizen ) who it was reported was making significant strides in the study of a coronavirus vaccine. He was supposedly shot to death by a friend of his who happened to be a fellow science educated professional person  (  in another field ) who also was Chinese born.

This other man was found in his murdered friend's car not far from the murder scene, himself shot dead, reportedly by his own hand.

Now, if one wanted to, this incident alone could be looked upon as so highly intriguing as to trigger a conspiracy theory all by itself.

So many questions because of their fields of study, their shared ethnic heritage, their close friendship status, their histories not showing such extreme personal behavior and on and on.

I am resisting giving this strange but intriguing event any more thought. 

As I am any other Covid-19 origin and purpose conspiracy talk or ideas.

After worrying about this virus right outside my door everyday and night, as well as a President who seems to be mishandling it all with mostly antagonistic, divisive and dangerous science ignoring non-leadership, I just don't have the energy.

However, I would like to add this final whimsical thought that I "have" entertained about this entire humanity threatening crisis mixed with my one allowed conspiracy belief ( besides the JFK, RFK and MLK murder ones) and that is ...

If we do indeed have an ET presence here on Earth and we are in contact with them and their supposed super-advanced technological knowledge is real...couldn't we ask them for "just a little" help in finding a cure for this death virus threatening our entire species?

1 hour ago, Ty Carpenter said:

Joe,

May I ask if you know what they did to treat your relatives illness? Was he on a ventilator any drugs to help treat the illness?

Ty, I have no idea about medicines but he was never hospitalized so he wasn't on any ventilator.

I was not the one that talked to him.

I haven't personally spoken to him in about one years time.

"So far", it looks like he and his wife just weren't hit that hard.

However, with this unpredictable predator one must be cautious in any assumption of complete recovery.

My infected relative called our family today to report he was feeling better after 5 days.

He said he was feeling sore all over the first day. Feverish and weak the next few days.

His family will still be in quarantine for a time.

We are hoping he fully recovers and doesn't have one of those awful relapses.

If there isn't enough bad news regards the coronavirus already?

On 7/28/2019 at 5:32 PM, Douglas Caddy said:

Because James McCord is mentioned as being one of my clients in Watergate in my posting today titled, "Watergate. Trump's Space Force, and 2020," I am providing a link to my article:

Who in 1972 when Watergate broke could have foreseen that the scandal eventually would lead back to President Trump’s uncle John G.Trump, an eminent scientist at MIT in the 1940’s who was delegated by the government among other classified tasks with reading Tesla’s secret files after his death and investigating the UFO phenomenon and then into the next century to Donald Trump inside the White House in a titanic struggle for control of the universe? Only one person foresaw this: President Richard Nixon who 47 years ago predicted that next year, 2020, would be cataclysmic not only for America but for the whole planet and who 32 years ago predicted that Trump one day would be president.

 

 

Doug's July 28, 2019 recounting of Nixon's 1973 prediction of a U.S. and entire world affecting cataclysmic event occurring in the year 2020 is mind blowing and simply too grandly specific to be dismissed as mere coincidence.

The fact that the Covid-19 event is effecting and changing the entire world ( 8 BILLION PEOPLE )  in every major political, social and economic way and in just a 3 month time span already sets Nixon's prediction apart in it's importance as well as Doug's credibility in stating it and it's importance ( more than once) and well before it's actual occurrence.

As far as I ever read, Nixon was not an Edgar Cayce or Jeanne Dixon promoter.

His only other odd comments to anyone else which suggested fantastic truths was to Jackie Gleason about captured ETs. He also mentioned in a recorded comment ( although he thought it wasn't recorded ) to an interviewer an inference of LBJ's guilt in the JFK assassination " you know Lyndon...he never liked to be number two."

This world wide and world changing coronavirus just this year truly fit's Nixon's prediction to such a specific degree, it begs more study and interest imo.

I now believe Doug's reporting of it and it's importance greatly.

Also, in going back to the posting of Fletcher Prouty's account of Francis Gary Power's capture and all the items he was carrying with him upon his capture is ominously intriguing.

48 gold coins? Lots of foreign currency? All his ID including his drivers license?

More stuff than a traveling salesman!

Reminds me of what "Q" gave James Bond before his spy mission to Turkey in the film "From Russia With Love." A brief case with 20 English gold sovereigns secretly encased.

Regards the LBJ narrative above, I felt I was reading about Donald Trump!

I mean "to a T" !

The paranoia fixation ( about Obama number one ) but about "anyone" criticising or confronting him ... the press and countless others.

The crude, demeaning and making fun insults and name calling even to his former staff. "Sloppy Steve Bannon ." Jeff Sessions - " Dumb Southerner" "Mentally Retarded."

A sadistic sense of humor.

One way loyalty.  Repeating self-bolstering words over and over and over. LBJ's was "sincere."  Trump's are "excellent, brilliant, genius, greatest"...etc, etc.

Obsessed with having women around him looking sexy and thin, etc. Trump is sickened by fat and or ugly women.

Believing his own xxxx, etc.

What are some of the most substantially intriguing revelations about Ruby connected fired DPD officer "Harry Olsen" and his wife Kay that makes and keeps them such persons of interest, even now 57 years later?

I've read some about them here on the forum, however nothing on the level of bombshell imo.

A great part of the food growing, distribution and sales industry is the restaurant and institutional kitchen demand area.

With hundreds of thousands of restaurants closed all across the country or barely bringing in some income through take out ( and include tens of thousands of institutional kitchens such as colleges and large companies ) imagine the loss of revenue to food growers and distributors from this hammered area of demand alone.

Yes, grocery stores across the country have significant increased sales. But, again, this is "just one" major aspect of our economy that has been hit harder than anything we have seen in 70 years.

I just heard on MSNBC today that the unemployment rate in the hospitality industry is 51% !!! The construction industry 33%. Professional sector 13%

It was mentioned that the unemployment rate during the GW Bush recession never surpassed 10% during it's entire run!

I don't know how Trump's backers do it, but keeping the stock market artificially propped up in this crash of the economy in so many areas is a dark mystery imo.

If Delphine Robert's and her daughter's eye witness claims and statements regards a connection between Guy Banister, Ferrie and Oswald ( seeing them together ) are true, this is explosive.

Why are she and her daughter so often trashed as to their credibility?

Why would they say something so incriminating? 

If their comments are made up or lies, did they do this for simple attention? A book deal? Paid off by someone?

Was their interviewer a shady background character?

Who would pay them to make up a story like the one their interviewer related?

I just can't easily see the motivation for them making this up or lying about it or putting themselves at risk for relating such a dynamite story.

The owner of the Mancuso restaurant is the one who is so obviously holding back what he knew and saw with Bannister and his group of merry pranksters.

Also, Regis Kennedy seems to have so much suspicious baggage.

The stock market has gone up 5,000 points from a month and a half ago.

What was it then...18,750?  Today it's at 23,900?

That's so illogical in traditional real market dictating dynamics ( corporate profit, unemployment, consumer retail spending, consumer confidence, oil production, demand and price setting volatility, hugely falling housing sales and startups, hugely falling automobile sales, international markets and stresses, commodity stresses, hyper debt increases, trade stresses, manufacturing stresses...which are either in RECORD LOW TERRITORY...OR RECORD HIGH ...it's crazy!

I don't even want to read explanations that the market has risen this much because investors "think" these dynamics will improve with highly unknown risk state economy openings.

We are right next to 1929 depression era numbers in major areas of our economy.

Airlines, tourism, hospitality, gas and oil consumption, you name it.

Food production is stressed like we have never seen in our lifetimes due to the virus fears and cases and deaths.

Our jails and prisons are on the verge of virus chaos. Our rest homes too.

Our unemployment situation is the worst since the great depression!

20% today versus 25% during the depression!

Consensus medical expert predictions for the virus damage impact is that it's supposed to get WORSE and perhaps be around for another 2 years!

So, I cannot understand this amazing market increase except to assume it's all being propped up somehow by forces outside of traditional market factors.

To such a highly illogical degree it's crazy ... and suspicious.

What persons invested in the stock market are calling their brokers and frantically yelling into the phone " BUY! BUY! BUY!" ?

HA!

I have a very savvy and intelligent relative who told me he pulled all his market money out in early March and put it into bonds. He was relieved because he only lost 10% of his market money and got out at the right early time.

I asked him how the market could have gone up 5,000 points in a month and a half and he said he couldn't figure out how anyone in their right mind could be pumping money into the markets with all the information we have been inundated with about not just our own virus devastated national situation, but the entire world's.

Gold mines all.

13 hours ago, Cory Santos said:

My Reno office is right next to and overlooks the corner of the Virginia Street Bridge where Marilyn threw her wedding ring in the Misfits.   The Mapes is gone now.   It was really something.   I recall as a child going to parties in the Sky Room.   Harrahs is closing as a casino.   The towers will become condos.   Very sad what happened to downtown.

Cory, is the downtown casino area as deserted now as I saw it in 2005?

I heard some casinos stayed open.

Would that include Circus Circus? How about the El Dorado?

How about the MGM grand? Wasn't that a bit South of Downtown?

What do people do for work in that area now? I heard some auto maker or some other higher tech company was going to relocate there?

I remember those casino breakfast specials for like $3 back in the 70's.

FWIW there are many anecdotal remembrances by celebrities and former employees about Sinatra and his relationships with Monroe, Kennedy, Giancana in the following documentary . It's 1 and 1/2 hours long so you will want to watch from about the 56 minute mark and for about 20 minutes more.

One story from long time Sinatra girl friend Jeanne Carmen relates how she once drove Robert Kennedy and a few other girls from Peter Lawford's Santa Monica beach house to a nude beach North of Malibu, where RFK frollicked in the sand and water naked with them.

Pamela, you know the city, that's for sure.

Why did you ever leave?

I have mentioned earlier in another post how I never liked large cities and their crowded streets and big buildings.

That's absolutely true.

The events I have related here were an anomaly in this regards.

I was taken to these big city locations by a friend who really wanted me to accompany her to them.

I would never have gone to them on my own. Couldn't afford to and actually felt stressed, especially in the penthouse at the Clift, always mindful of the reality of large earthquakes in Calif. And I've never been back to Hawaii or stayed in large city hotels since.

Good memories? Of course. But I almost felt an obligation to visit these places with this friend as a token of my appreciation for her friendship and generosity. It was actually hard in some ways however, because my wife and I had our 1 year old son along with us, who we refused to leave with others at home here in Monterey. Too protective? Maybe.

Couple of other funny side stories. Don Ho show in Honolulu. The guy was so drunk the entire show he could hardly stand up. You could see he was sick of singing "Tiny Bubbles" after doing so 20,000 times. Also, Japan town in S.F. had a bowling alley! Called Japan Bowl. Two separate bowling alley's on two floors! Was told by the front desk person that the first floor alley was for LGTB bowlers and the second floor alley anyone else. I'm sure you could mix though. Only in S.F.!  I do love the liberalism of S.F. despite my feeling stressed when visiting there.

On 5/4/2020 at 9:44 PM, Cory Santos said:

But did they go to my favorite for dinner, the Tonga Room at the Fairmont on Nobb Hill?

The Fairmont was "The Place" to go to and be seen back then.

I once stayed in one of the Penthouse suites at the Four Seasons Clift hotel back in 1985.

Courtesy of a wealthy, generous friend. The view was incredible. Big high windows all around.  Snacked/drank in the "Redwood Room" once but room service food was so outstanding didn't need to dine out. Also stayed at the "Miyako" in Japan Town.

This same friend took us down to the Beverly Hills Hotel as well. Had our own bungalow. I would take our little boy in his stroller through the grounds real early in the morning and around the grounds perimeter. I can still remember standing on the corner of Sunset Blvd. and one of the Drives on the side ( Beverly-Crescent?) and just watching cars come down from the higher residences. I saw Smokey Robinson in a Mercedes Coupe. Fernando Lamas Jr. came roaring down on a Harley.

Homes nearby were Milton Berle's, Lucille Ball's, etc.

Dined and drank in the Polo Lounge. Sat behind a birthday celebration for Cornel Wilde. Joseph Cotton was in the group. He spoke. His voice was mesmerizing.

Another late evening sitting with my friend, the Maitre D brought two younger gorgeous blonds to the table next to us occupied by a very elderly man and when they arrived he said..."Ladies, I'd like you to meet Mr. Max Factor."

Ran into Susanne Pleshette in a video store on Rodeo Drive. Got her autograph on a store business card. Sweet, kind looking lady. Dined at Spago's and watched many stars coming and going such as Sidney Portier. 

Stayed at the Kahala Hilton near Diamond Head in a suite next to one occupied by Sylvester Stallone and his new bride Brigitte Nielson ( again 1985-August .)

One day while sitting on the veranda of the Royal Hawaiian hotel drinking Blue Hawaiians my wife (who had stayed back at the Kahala) had our 1 year old boy on the little grass lawn outside our suite next to a trail that led to the hotel's private beach.

She said a large group of men came up from the beach and the person they were surrounding was a Chinese woman. When they got close to my wife and our son, she stopped and stared at our boy for a minute ( just feet away) and asked through an interpreter if my wife could bring him to her. She then lifted and held our son and studied his face. Our little one had lots of pink bite marks on his face ( from I guess mosquitos while we were staying at Plantation Gardens on Kauai just before arriving at the Kahala) 

The woman told my wife she was a doctor and was curious about the marks. Turned out this woman was the wife of China's leader ( President?) at the time - Li Xiannian?" He and she had stopped for a short layover in Honolulu on their way back from a visit to Washington D.C..

Unfortunately my wife didn't get a picture of the Republic Of China's First Lady holding our son.

Sorry for diverting so much here from the main topic. But, these were some interesting times.

If I am ordered I will remove the post.

2 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

No no no  Jim!  This is Katrina times 1000! Katrina was regional.  This was going to be bad. There was a serious  institutional  (CDC)problem around testing. But we had a chance to contain this better than California has! We had plenty of warning, dodged a bullet with the earliest California infections and also saw the growth of this starting in Europe.   Because of Trumps ineptness we've had to completely shut down our economy. We won't completely recover for a long while! We've piled on enough debt to make the Great Recession look cheap!

Now not only are we dealing with people's lives, we're going to have an economic tsunami for years!  

And now he's trying to overcompensate by keeping even virus infected meat packing industries open!

This was the worst timing imaginable. A "deep state"  anti-government President who was preaching publicly against all his government advice about the virus  just to look defiant to his misguided political base.

 

The G W Bush recession alone took years to fully recover.

What is happening now is 100X more devastating and will effect our lives and our children's and grandchildren's lives for 10 to 20 years!

Half the businesses in the country that have shut down will probably never be able to get through this and come back. 

And what will be the price for increasing our national debt by trillions of dollars to barely keep tens of millions of citizens from absolute insolvency and homelessness?

The rate of rent defaults is about to explode. My guess is to 25 to 30%!

Owners of these lost rent properties are going to demand a massive bailout from the feds themselves.

And Lindsey Graham just publicly stated that the extra $600 a month boost to unemployment checks will be continued "over my dead body" meaning he is going to end this aid to American's whose unemployment income is so low it can't even pay the rent.

The owners of lowest wage paying business's across America ran to Graham and demanded this with the scrooge mentality complaint that this extra $600 a month unemployment income boost is de-incentavizing and spoiling their workers from coming back to work for their slave wages.

So, Graham takes the side of 5% of Americans against the 25% to 30% who need that extra $600 to just keep up their rents and other bills.

Typical Republican cold blooded favoritism towards the minority better off versus the majority less so.

1 hour ago, Pamela Brown said:

Interesting.  I stayed at the Cal-Neva for a weekend when I lived In San Francisco in early 1969.  I recall that we had to use chains to get there, as it had snowed.  It was beautiful.  I was unaware of what had happened to MM though, at that time...

In my twenties ( the 1970's ) I went to Tahoe's South Shore ( and/or Reno ) maybe once every 3 or 4 years and always in a car load of friends. It was a 300 mile one way commute. We were average low wage manual labor fellows and would have maybe $300 at most to play with.

When I finally went to North Shore in the late 1990's the Indian casinos had been up and running and like I said,  everyone knew that so many of the people who used to drive or take buses to Reno and even Tahoe from Northern California just said " to heck with that long commute" and would instead spend their gambling money closer to their homes.

I hadn't been to Reno since a visit there in about 1986 or 1987.

A friend asked me to go to a gathering on Eagle Lake near Susanville, CA in about 2005.

We had to drive through Reno to get to Highway 395 to Eagle Lake.

My friend had to stop in Reno because he wanted to play "21" at Harrahs.

I don't play cards so I just walked around waiting for him to finish losing his money. Several hours of bored waiting.

In that walk around I was stunned!

Harrah's was deserted! Just a couple of card tables going.

When I went there in the 1970's Harrahs and every other Reno casino was packed and the streets were packed with people too!

The streets of Reno were completely deserted. All I remember seeing were scattered newspapers being blown around like tumbleweed! Like an apocalyptic movie.

The Indian Casino's in California devastated Reno's gambling business base.

However, I have often read that the Nevada gambling industry big shots were partners in these Indian casinos, so they were still in the money.

Getting back to Cal Neva, Sinatra, M & M etc.

My lifetime observation is that organized crime ( Sicilian Mafia in particular) has never been fully and honestly acknowledged and exposed regards the amount of wealth, influence and power they truly had and exerted throughout our country since the end of WWII and in every level of government ( city, county, state and federal ) and all the way up to the presidency.

Hoover himself was compromised by them. JFK too to a certain degree with Judyth Campbell Exner and who knows who else.

LBJ and Nixon had ties.

There is no real debate about this level of mob influence anymore.

To doubt this reality is simply choosing to be naive.

And enough beautiful Hollywood starlets had affairs with these mobsters ( allegedly ) that one cannot say it could never have occurred with Monroe imo.

Lana Turner, Phyliss McGwire, Liza Minelli, Liz Hurley, etc.

Mickey Cohen had Candy Barr although she was a star of the strip club circuit only.

Less attractive starlets and female celebrities were safe from the advances of these mobsters because like almost everyone else, they wanted only the beautiful ones.

Think Ruth Buzzi, Totie Fields, Phyliss Diller, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bette Davis, etc.