A Modern Moron Book Review

The annelation of their childhood, stripped of their language, culture and spiritual believes, because the white man wanted it all. 

Jim Thorpe, a full-blooded Indian was born in 1888. The first 25-years of his life, he was dealing with the U.S. Army's mission to hunt down and kill every Indian in their path, including babies, women and children or enslave them into being white. 

Driven from their land again and again by broken treaties, subjected to every known spoliation and classified as beavers, buffalo and other wild creatures and compelled to give way to the march of civilization. The distorted cultural lens of whiteness is sagacious exposed in David Maraniss's 2022 book, "Path Lit by Lightning the Life of Jim Thorpe"   

In 1904, Jim began attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and for at least one year, Pop Warner ran it. It was a very football orientated school. The official policy at Carlisle was to exterminate the Indian, not in body, but in language, dress, tradition, behavior and soul. 

In 1912, Thorpe became the caption of the college Carlisle team and game by game he became the icon for the American Indian, reaching mythical proportions, he was an athletic odyssey. 

Thorpe excelled in college and pro football and did very well in Major League Baseball. In 1916, while playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, Thorpe lead the league in stolen bases and banged in 10 homers with a .274 batting average. 

In 1912, Thorpe won two gold medals, the last year the Olympic gold was solid gold. He won gold in the Pentathlon and Decathlon. The putrid politics of having his medals taken away and finally restored to him decades after his death is all covered. 

The director of "Casablanca" directed the 1950s flick, "Jim Thorpe-All American." Documentary ends, movie making begins, Pop Warner said upon the movie's release.  

Having read this book, it's clear, I'm not a man. Hiram Thorpe, Jim's father had 15 children with five different women and Jim recalls his dad killing and skinning two deer's and hoisting one on each shoulder and walking several miles to the house to feed the family. Both Jim and his father were avid hunters and fishers. Thorpe said hunting and fishing was his favorite sport. By the time Jim was 10 years old, he would trek more than five miles alone into the woods to hunt and fish, often being gone from home for days. 

Jim Thorpe was an Olympic track champion, all American college and pro football player. He also played in Major League Baseball and the World Famous Indians basketball team. Thorpe was also one the founding presidents of the NFL. 

Jim was an absentee father for all seven of his children. His first son, Jim jr. died of sickness when he was just 3-years old, and booze certainly didn't help in Thorpe's private life. In the 1920s while playing college football for the Canton Bulldogs, and Carlisle, Jim had bouts with the three B's. Booze, broads and brawls.

His life was an impressive legacy laden with the ecstasy of victory, the gnawing pain of defeat and the exquisite ecstasy of athletic dominance.  

I've simply tinged the tip of the ice burg of this amazing five-star book. You don't have to be a sports buff or have heard of Jim Thorpe to enjoy this book, it's simply and amazing tale of tragedy and triumph. 

Mark Izzy Schurr   

 

Round One of This Year's Presidential Debate.

Our nation's national debt has soared to record highs under the leadership of President Biden and Donald Trump, these are the last eight years of stats pointed out in last night debate. (Photo, Schurr Shot, Devils Churn beach)

"We had no terror at all during my administration...during my four years we had the best environmental numbers ever...We had the greatest economy ever in our history when I was president, " Trump said.  

Forty out of the 44 cabinet members you appointed are not supporting you now...159 presidential schoolers voted you the worst president ever, Biden said. 

Trump said everybody wants Roe v. Wade to be state decisions and not mandated.  

President Biden supports Roe v. Wade and proposes billionaires pay 24 or 25 percent taxes as opposed to what they currently pay; 8.2 percent. 

Neither candidate last night was compelling, dull golf challenges, Trump bragging about acing a dementia test. Trump knows the difference between a whale and a lion, and he officially bragged about this last night. Biden didn't look promising to lead us another four years, yet he's our best choice over the serial liar and felon, Trump.

Seriously America! With the right people in charge, young adults would have an educational system designed for their ideas and imaginations while learning essential skills. Four-day work weeks, the livable 32-hour kind, UBI, and so much more. 

The political wisdom of Andrew Yang, and Tulsi Gabbard's books inspire me, alas, I regress.

What's happening on the American and Mexican borders is disastrous under both democratic and republican leadership. Under Biden, the border policies are seriously flawed, but equally worthless under Trump's leadership.  

Not left, not right, but The Foward Party, if not that one, find another independent party, because our presidential choices this year are horrendous, even shameful. Yang is clear, neither party in charge is the answer for America. Who do we vote for this year? 

I'm riden' with Biden, simply because he's not Trump. I'd vote for Ron DeSantis over Biden. I'm not anti-republican, I'm anti Trump. He's using 1700s political scare tactics and it's working. Where's the data on America welcoming in Mexicans who are mentally ill or their prisoners stealing our social security while living in luxury hotels?

Neither candidate talked about the tens of thousands of dead Palestinian children from Israel's insane retaliation on Hamas. Yes, the October 7 Hamas attacks which pulverized more than 1,200 Is Raelians was true terror, but mass murdering children is not the answer. 

Nintendo soldier pilot's flying and launching nuclear weaponry on women and children needs to end yesterday. America is still bombing children overseas. America's mass shooting problem suddenly dissipated? 

Last night's debate was very disappointing, a one-and-a-half-star watch, but vote, all eligible voters, vote.org, its the very least we really need to do. 

Mark Izzy Schurr    

    

 

  

  

Make America Great Again?

When was America ever great? It took the U.S 144 years to allow voting rights to women, and in 1920, it was only white women that were allowed to vote in all states. (The above picture is an actual picture of the potential Felon in Chief, the dangling of the Mc What

Hav Yous is AI, but the rest is real from his trail in which he was found guilty on all 34 counts.)

For some, America was great more than 159 years ago when black people could be bought and sold like any other inanimate product. How come nobody talks about our third president and his black sex slaves Thomas Jefferson? The history of any massive country is rooted on mass murder and rape from its hierarchy, and America is no different than China, Japan, Russia, France, Africa, the U.K., and many more countries. 

Slavery ended on paper a 159-years ago, and yet hate between some blacks and whites simply based on skin color and not the content of their character still fuels too many hearts of hate from both cultures. 

On May 20, Donald Trump had 'unified Reich' stuff on his personal Truth Social page. People, including myself may argue if Trump is a racist or not, but one thing is certain, he caters to these hate groups, including the KKK, the Proud Boys and the QAnon, aka the Q. 

February 19, 1942, was another great day in America for some of Trump's cult, I'll betcha. On this day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to be rounded up and jailed. I read two books on this torrid history of the U.S. The 2003 novella, "When the Emperor Was Divine," by Julie Otsuka and George Takei's "My Lost Freedom," released this year. 

George Takei was sent to a maximum-security prison when he was 5-years-old in 1942 with his mother, father and two siblings, one slightly older and his toddler sister. His crime, being a Japanese American. His mother was a true citizen, she was born in Sacramento and his dad was a legal immigrant from Japan, and like the white people, paid their taxes and worked legally. Make America Great? When exactly was it Great? 

How wonderful the Native American's were treated, is that when America was great?                                                                                                                                                                                        Referring to African Americans as blacks and Native Americans as Indians are my preferences because it's less wordy and when the Indians slaughtered General Custer and his entire Cavalry, it was true justice. White man was in the wrong and they paid the ultimate price of war. Months before the Battle of Litte Bighorn, General Custer and his army were told by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and another Indian Chief to leave the Black Hills or die. It was a one-sided slaughter lead by Crazy Horse's Cheyenne tribe, Sitting Bull's tribe and one other Chief and his warriors. 

In the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer was one of all nine officers killed along with all 280 enlisted cavalry U.S. soldiers. Thirty-two Indian warriors lost their lives for justice that day. America was great that day for me. The Indians were here first, and the whites came for the gold, so fuck General Custer, he had months to head the warnings and bail in peace.       

Currently America isn't even in the top 30 in education or clean water, so where is all this lip service greatness? 

I agree with Trumpsters, President Joe Biden is a do-nothing old man, but he's not Trump, so again, I'm ridn' with Biden in November. Trump is a whooping four years younger than Biden and an absolute disgrace to America and all humanity. He's a convicted felon and tried to overthrow the government and that's just the tip of the iceberg for him, a serial criminal and liar. He told more than 30,000 lies or spread misinformation in just four years. Airports in 1776? Trump, a stable genius? Trump also suggested we nuke hurricanes. His stupidly is infinite. Donald J. Trump, the j is for genius he'll probably say. 

In my brothers and sisters' lifetimes, America was segregated and ended the year I was born. Signs reading whites only were laden throughout America in the early 1960s and earlier, when America was great, according to Jabba the Gut and his cult. 

I support local sports while too many Trumpsters send the billionaire buffoon felon money to help with his legal fees. I follow no one's dictates, save my own, I finally grew up.  

Looking upon America's choices for the upcoming election, I see the beginning of the end. I want to be wrong, I really do, but honestly, I'm glad my life is more than half over, the future looks bleak to me, but I know how to fake happiness and sometimes experience it. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

    

 

Another Modern Moron Book Review

Those in control of today's Democratic party and permeant Washington are leading us down a very dangerous path that threatens our freedom, democracy and ability to thrive in a peaceful prosperous county, Tulsi Gabbard said in her new book "For Love of Country Leave the Democrat Party Behind." 

Gabbard's political novel is a fantastic read, Republicans would love it. I liked this book and I'm anti Trump. 

In early 2022, congress voted on a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine with no conditions on how the money is spent. I learned this and so much more from her new book. 

Personally, I think she should be the American president, she's not even 50-years-old, a former member of congress, an enlisted member of the U.S. Army reserve and has seen the spoils of war firsthand when she was stationed in Iraq in 2005. 

 "We (America) create the rules and the good guys are the ones who follow the rules, and the bad guys are the ones who don't," Gabbard said.

Self-serving politicians send our soldiers to die in wars they have nothing to do with, and then fly into war zones on our tax dollars to shake hands with a few soldiers for photo opps. When these politicians showed up in Iraq where she was stationed, she refused to shake any of their hands. She has heart and soul, and having been to war, knows what absolute lunacy and evil war really is.  

Politician don't care about our soldiers or their families. These warmongers are all lip service, and their actions tell the story, Gabbard said. More than 7,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and more than 500,000 Iraqi and Afghanistan children have been murdered in these wars so one percent of the insanely rich could get even wealthier. 

When I was in Iraq, the KBR Halliburton logo was stamped on almost everything. Food, laundry, fuel and port a potties from a company that made 100s of billions of dollars if not trillions, Gabbard said. 

Our foreign policy should not be based on dropping bombs or exacting crippling sanctions on other nations Gabbard said. 

The Dooms Day clock is currently at 90 seconds to midnight. It's moved up 30 seconds since the early 1980s. The Doomsday Clock is adjusted every year by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist. Another fact I learned from reading this book. 

Males who go into female sports is absolute lunacy and it's because of the democrats this nonsense goes on. Swimmer William Thomas changed his name to Lia Thomas and as a male he was ranked 462nd in the world. Simply changing his name and declaring himself a woman, he was able to compete against the women, thanks to Democrats in power. In the locker rooms he was often aroused and bragged to women about his sexual conquests and their complaints were ignored. 

One democratic politician said it would be OK if Mike Tyson declared himself a woman and joined a female boxing league. I'm still voting for President Joe Biden this November, but I understand the Republicans frustrations with the Democrats. 

Gabbard rips on the Biden administration the way I do with Donald J. Trump. In 2020, Gabbard was for Biden, but this year, she's voting for Trump. Surprise, I still hate Trump, but I really liked "For the Love of Country Leave the Democratic Party Behind." Three and a half stars for this well written and insightful book.

Mark Izzy Schurr 

 

A Modern Moron Book Review

Glitz, glamour and scandal was the life and brief times of Thelma Todd, an iconic force in Hollywood yesteryear. 

Her death at 30-years-old was documented as a suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning in December of 1935. She was found dead in the front seat of her car that was in a closed garage. 

"The Ice Cream Blonde" details three compelling theories as to how she died. Accidental death, suicide or murder. 

Michelle Morgan, the author of this 2016 book leaves things open to how she died, personally, I think she was murdered, but the other two options are viable arguments, and I was very impressed how Morgan left out her personal opinions as to how Todd died. She marvelously presented all the evidence at her disposal from five years of research. 

Suicide and accidental death have certain merits, but murder seems the most likely to me. When she was found in her car, the autopsy report suggested she may have been choked to death by having a bottle or pipe shoved in her mouth, but carbon monoxide could have also caused the swelling. 

This book suggests how gangster activity goes hand in hand with Hollywood. Thelma Todd talked about this and before her death, close friends said she was getting ready for big changes in her life. She ran the luxurious club, the Cafe Trocadero, aka The Troc and denied gangsters from having a casino in her California club, despite death threats and larger amounts of money offered to her to allow it.    

Her then lover, Roland West wanted the casino and had known ties to gangsters, as did Todd, including maybe Al Capone.

This book is only 224 pages, an afternoon read, and Morgan is very concise and clear on the details. Four and a half stars for "The Ice Cream Blonde." 

Thelma Todd began her movie career at the tail end of the silent film era and ended it in the toddler hood of the sound era. Sound in the movies went mainstream in 1930, and she was in her first movie in 1926.

A picture of Thelma Todd during the silent era.

This book isn't just about her death. It reveals her childhood and other tragic deaths in her family, including her little brother who was killed accidentally when he was only 7-years-old. Read the book if you want more details. 

I also learned how smart Thelma Todd was. She spoke several different languages including Russian and Spanish and she negotiated all her movie contracts and ran a business. 

The business she ran, The Troc was later changed to Cafe Chez Roland in the mid 1940s. In 1951, this 12,500 square foot fully equipped restaurant, bar and entertainment venue with four penthouse apartments sold for $100,000. 

In 2015, Cafe Chez Roland sold under the name of the "Sidewalk Cafe." The front doors of the building Todd used herself, the sliding glass doors to her room and the refrigerator used by the 1930s staff were still intact at the time it was sold. 

Thelma Todd was an outstanding example of the new school of motion picture women evolving in Hollywood, a writer said in an article from Hollywood Filmograph. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

   

Alice in Wonderland, it's Timeless

Journey into the enchanted realms where the unimaginable is tangible. 

The mystic bands of childhood dreams twined into our memories ripe with the shadows of eternity. Burning with curiosity, Alice ran after the white rabbit with pink eyes, topcoat and a waist coat pocket watch. (Lewis Carroll)

19-year-old Charlotte Henery as 12-year-old Alice in 1933

In time the little girl would be a grown woman ripe in years and a loving heart and gather her children and make their bright eyes eager with many strange tales, thus the tale of "Alice in Wonderland grew. (Lewis Carroll) 

Ruth Gilbert as Alice in 1915

 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

Another Modern Moron Book Review

I was amazed the state of California allowed my alcoholic father who declared bankruptcy, failed in business and terrorized me as a child was given full control all my accomplishments and everything I've done, Britney Spears said. 

Last year's book, "Britney Spears the Woman in Me" was a very impressive read. An excellent book I borrowed from the local Santa Rosa library. 

The tabloids and the news merely tinged the surface of the Britney Spears conservatorship, which she endured for 13 years. During this time, any man who dated her had to pass a background check by her father, sign an NDA and submit a blood test even though she was an adult.  

Conservatorships or guardianships are primary reserved for people with no mental capabilities, or ones who cannot do anything for themselves. 

Spears admits she needed some guidance, and that she partied too much from time to time, but as I see it, she was very young, beautiful and rich, and enjoyed life. This is not a crime. Spears was the first woman to have a number one debut album and single from the same album, and she was only 16-years-old at the time. It's not her fault she was idolized at such a young age, and she mentioned how men of all ages have oohed and awed at her body ever since she was a young teenager.

Her mom and dad got her into show business, and as a pre-teen she got her big break as a Mouseketeer on the new Mickey Mouse Club, aka MMC. Mouseketeers were between the ages of 8-12-years-old. 

Spears details her love life between Justin Timberlake and other men and keeps the gossip classy. She's the first to admit she wasn't perfect, nor is she now, but she's free from her parents and the conservatorship and that's fantastic. 

I want my father to stop drinking and my mom to stop yelling, Spears said, recalling her childhood before she was the bread winner in the family. 

In 2008, Cosmopolitan named her Ultimate Woman of the Year, and her song "Piece of Me" won every award it was nominated for, including video of the year. She was under conservatorship at this time, and her father flat out said to her, "I'm Britney Spears now.  

Under her father's insane dictatorship, Spears was also a Las Vegas residency performer. While a Vegas singer, dancer and choreographer, she did 248 shows, and every show was the same songs and chorography because of her horrible father. Each show grossed hundreds of thousands of dollars and she was given a $2,000. a week allowance.

"Sometimes under the conservatorship I felt like a child, but mostly like a pissed off adult. Music was my blood and my bones, and they took that away from me," Spears said. 

She also had four hours of therapy a week, mandatory AA meetings four days a week, training, fan meet and greets while also doing three shows a week in Vegas. Spears said she is sorry for not being able to give fans who attended her Vegas shows all she could because of the stupid conservatorship rules. Free Britney was something her fans did for her and kept her going she said in "The Woman in Me." 

Under the conservatorship I was safer physically, but it was absolutely horrible for my sense of joy and creativity, Spears said.    

She was also forced into a $60,000 a year rehab facility and was there for way too long. While she was there, her mother and father got rid of all her Madame Alexander dolls she started collecting as a child and three years' worth of poetry she wrote. 

I made peace with my family, and by that, I mean I never want to see them again, and I'm at peace with that, Spears said. 

In 2021, Spears got former lawyer for Stephen Spielberg and Keanu Reeves, and now she is no longer under her deranged father's thumb.  

"I've made music, traveled the world, became a mother, found love. lost it and found it again. It's been a while since I felt present in my own life, in my own power, my own womanhood, but I'm here now," Spears said. 

Mark Izzy Schurr