#julie berman

[thena0315]

The Women of Chicago Med from the Past 10 Years

2015 - 2025

[its-a-geeks-world]

Oh look it's me criticizing Inmortality via a meme

You guys know I love GSR but they kinda did everyone else dirty in the finale

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Code Blue Ch. 19- Suite Emotions

Summary: A funeral reception takes place on top of the town. Josie panics. Lee saves her and does something sweet. Britt gets drunk and says too much. Josie lets her have it. Lee loses his cool with Gordon. The party's just beginning. Josie vows to herself to forget the past. She and Lee are in bliss with each other, until others interfere. Josie and Ethan have it out, then she and Lee have an emotional fight.

*Warnings* Anxiety, language, angst, alcohol use, drug use, violence,

Stories Stories Stories Masterlist

Chapter characters: Lee, Josie, Britt, Amy, Gordon, Donna, Ethan

Salem, Massachusetts

February 26, 2023

6 pm - The Metro Court

Lee had rented a huge penthouse at the top of the Metro Court in downtown Salem for the funeral reception. He figured it would be perfect for the out of town guests or those who just wanted to get drunk, to have a place to stay for the night.

You and Lee were the first to arrive after the burial, followed by Britt and Amy, since Britt lived in another apartment there and she desperately wanted to change into something of casual comfort and hit the liquor cabinet.

As you all entered the hotel, Lee led you straight to the elevator, in which you froze as he pushed the button. You wanted to tell him you couldn't do it, but the last thing you wanted was to make him walk up almost twenty flights of stairs all because you were too chicken shit to ride in the metal box. You told yourself you could do it because Lee was with you and you could just hold onto him and close your eyes.

The doors opened and in you went, gripping his hand as your legs turned to jelly. You could instantly feel your chest tighten as the doors shut, locking you in. Closing your eyes, you imagined Lee's calming voice telling you what he said when he had carried you into the ER.....Breathe...

You certainly tried, but your throat was constricting. Lee's presence was not helping like you thought it would and he immediately noticed you clutching your chest along with the death grip you had on his hand.

"Jo? Hey sweet girl, what's wrong?"

You couldn't speak or even open your eyes to look at him. Your jaw was clenched as you held your breath and soon, your legs began to give.

"Jesus, Jo, baby??" Lee gasped and grabbed your waist to hold you up, then repeatedly punched the button to the next floor in panic. It opened and he quickly puled you out and steadied you against the wall.

"Look at me, look at me Jo." he insisted as he cupped your face in his hands. Your eyes flickered open. "Breathe Jo..."

You let your breath out and deflated like a balloon into his arms.

"I've got you, I've got you. You're safe." he sweetly assured as he cradled you softly and stroked your hair. "Do you want to tell me what just happened? because you just scared the hell out of me."

"I...I am so sorry. I...I can't do elevators...the small space. I..I tried to do it for you. I thought I would be ok with you beside me."

"God, how stupid can I be?? You told me about what your sister did to you. How could I forget and be so careless with you?? I am so sorry Jo."

"Lee, it's not your fault. You are not stupid! You just have a lot on your mind. I should have said something but...I didn't want you to think I was a big baby. I could have taken the stairs and met you up there."

"Ok, listen to me right now. You are NOT a baby for having a genuine validated fear and I certainly would never think you were one...and like hell you are going to take the stairs alone while I take the easy way up. Come on..."

"W...wait...what are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I am taking the stairs with you. I've been slacking on the gym anyways, so I could use the exercise." he cutely grinned as he patted his belly and took your hand.

You couldn't believe how understanding he was and that he was doing this for you. It made you get in all your feels and you did what you never do in front of people, especially him. You began to cry.

'Jo, baby girl, why are you crying??? Come here.."

As soon as he took you in his arms, you broke down even harder and felt so dumb...but he just brought things out of you that you didn't know existed. He kissed the top of your head and lightly rocked you, as if you were dancing.

"I..I'm so sorry...I..don't know what happened...just everything...I never do this...this crying thing...I feel so stupid." your shaky voice muffled into his chest.

He then made you look at him as he tenderly gripped your chin.

"Hey, if I'm not stupid, then you're not stupid. It's only fair."

You couldn't control the smile that curled clear up your cheeks and so did his.

"See...there's my girl and her beautiful smile."

Lee realized what he just said, calling you his girl and you had caught it too. You both gazed at each other, having another moment...in which he broke, and you weren't sure why, because damn it, you wanted him to kiss you so bad.

"Let's get you up stairs and get you a stiff one....oh Jesus, I meant..."

You were rolling in laughter which made you trip up a step and then he did the same. You both sat there laughing so hard that no sound came out.

"My god, I need a stiff DRINK, or fifty." he chuckled. "Come on."

You definitely could use a stiff one, and you certainly wanted the dirty version of it....but you kept that mind gutter of a thought to yourself.

He took your hand and up the multiple flights you both went. Lee took his time too because he loved spending every moment alone with you that he could get and he knew that tonight, those moments would be far and few between.

Finally, you both made it to the top floor where Britt and Amy were waiting in the hall, both already changed into different outfits.

"Took you two long enough. Ya'll have a quickie in the stairwell?"

"Britt!!!!" you snapped.

Lee dropped and shook his head with a bashful grin as he put his hands on his hips.

'What? Don't get your panties in a twist Josie. We all know it's going to happen. I mean, who wouldn't want to, just look at him."

Your mouth dropped open wide at her buzzed bluntness. The aroma of tequila loitered the space around the four of you.

"Sorry Josie and Lee. Britt here had quite a few shots in her apartment." Amy explained in embarrassment.

"Yeah...one too many." you retorted, very unsettled by her comment about Lee....and he seemed a bit thrown as well.

"Don't apologize for me Amieeee. I'm a big girl and can do as I please. Now, Josie on the other hand, girl, you need to come change out of those little girl clothes." Britt snarked as she looked you up and down.

"What is wrong with the way I'm dressed??"

"Yeah, what is wrong with how Jo is dressed. She looks absolutely gorgeous." Lee argued and gave you a wink and a smile. Your heart fluttered as the butterflies went crazy.

"Exactly! She's gorgeous and shouldn't be dressed like a ten year old. If ya got it, flaunt it! and she's got it! Come on!!" Britt reprimanded you and began dragging you off down the hall.

You glanced back at Lee with an eye roll. "Sorry! I'll be right back."

Lee chuckled and he and Amy went inside to find Donna already there, sipping on a martini.

"Well, you guys wasted no time getting to the free bar. Where's Gordon?"

"In the other room tinkering with his toys as usual." she huffed.

"He brought one of his junk computers here...to work on at his father's funeral reception? You've got to be shitting me."

"Wish I were. It's that one he had as a teenager." she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Lee poured himself a double of whiskey and downed it, then marched off to have words with his ill-bred brother.

"Geez Britt, how much did you drink already?? Have you even eaten?"

"What does it matter how much I've drank, I don't give a shit."

"Ok...well I do...and where's your arm brace??"

"Don't know, don't care. I don't need it anyways. It's only a sprain and it don't hurt."

"It don't hurt because you're drunk and you're going to hurt it more."

"Ok doctor March!! I thought I was the doctor here?? Stop harping at me and pour yourself one. You are way too uptight! Loosen up and live a little! Maybe even get laid. You've probably got cobwebs down there by now."

"I don't need to be sauced to live...although maybe tonight, I will indulge a bit after this craptastic day." you groaned and went to pour a drink....silently agreeing that it's been too long since you've had sex. But, you weren't just going to give it to just anyone, like Britt had been good at doing, well at least until she met Jason. He was to her like Lee was to you. The one.

"That a girl!!! Now you'll fit in with Lee's crowd a lot better."

"Uh, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well duhhh, he likes his booze too if you haven't noticed and from what I remember, he likes more than alcohol...and he likes women that do all these things...and much more if ya get my drift."

"Shut up Britt! Don't talk about him like that...you know, all the complaining you've done about his drinking and problems is quite hypocritical don't ya think?? Look at you! And how do you know so much about Lee??"

"Mrrrow!! Well Josieeee, I've known him a lot longer than you. We've hung out a few times many years ago so?? And yeah, he's got problems, I've got problems, we've all got problems!! I just don't take mine to work...I mean, did you forget I lost my brother too? Remember Nathan?? Killed in the line of duty by that psycho Peter August that you were gaga over, oh and then there was my boyfriend who was blown to bits, well, almost boyfriend since he didn't want me involved in his life."

"Oh my god...you did not just say that about my BROTHER!"

'What? It's true. You were there!"

"Yeah Britt...I was there and could have died too. Can you be any more insensitive?? And no, I did not forget about Nathan. How could I? Maxi was in love with him, he was her husband. But don't make it sound like it was my fault that Peter is just like your father. I dropped him like a hot potato when I found out who he really was. Nathan died because he was the god guy trying to take down the bad guy, regardless of their shared blood. Don' t ever mention Peter to me again, or to anyone. He's in prison where he belongs...and don't forget Brittttt, he is your half brother just like Nathan. You all share the same wacko father so you could easily inherit the crazy too!"

You chugged down a shot and stormed off into her bedroom to look through her clothes. Britt followed you and plopped on the bed.

"Sorry...I just miss Jason and Nathan so fucking much and I don't know how to deal with it anymore."

"Well so do I Britt, but I don't say hurtful things to you about them."

"You're right...I'm sorry. It just came out...I'm just a mess and I'm lonely and everyone I know is happy and in love."

"I guess I understand that...but just watch what you say to me about Jason and Lee."

"You really love him don't you?" Britt asked as she sniffled.

"I'm not having this convo with you because you're big mouth will blurt it all out." you reeled as you fumbled through her clothes, not finding anything appealing, for most of it was all skimpy as far as anything dressy.

"Here...wear this. It's not overbearing." Britt insisted as she pulled out a flashy tank top and tight mini skirt. Not overbearing? You might as well have been naked. You tried it on and looked yourself over in the mirror. It wasn't so bad after all once you saw yourself in it.

"There...you look smokin hot and it shows your toned ice skating legs...here, take your hair down too...trust me, Lee will like that." she said as she violently pulled your hair tie out.

"Owwww! and Ok, he liked me just the way I was 15 minutes ago and...seriously..how do you know what he likes?" you curiously asked as you spun around to her.

"What? He's a man. What man don't like skin?" she said with widened tell tale eyes and turned to get another drink.

"You know...you just told me, no better yet, rubbed it in my face how you have known him for years and even hung out with him. not to mention your straight forward comment about him in the hall. Just how well do you know him Britt??"

"Josie, we work together, have for many years. Anyone with eyeballs can see he's a 10 out of 10. What are you getting at?"

Britt put her coat back on and went out onto the balcony to smoke, in which you followed her right out.

You grabbed her arm and spun her around. "Did you fuck him???"

She yanked her arm away. "I don't like what you're insinuating."

"My god....you did, didn't you??!"

"Josie, what good is this going to do...."

"Answer me!!"

"Ok fine! Yes!! one time. Jesus, it was almost 10 years ago, right after he started working at the hospital. You knew about how Lee was back then with women. What's the big deal??"

You couldn't help yourself, and you hauled off and slapped her.

"I...I did know...but I sure as hell never thought it was with you! That's the big deal!! Why did you not tell me!? God, why did HE not tell me!?"

You marched inside to put your shoes on and Amy was standing there with complete shock on her face as she heard everything. She had came to see what was taking you both so long.

"You told her??" Amy stated in disgust.

"You're joking right?? YOU knew too and didn't tell me??"

"I did Josie, but there was no reason to tell you. Britt is right. It was so long ago. Lee was a different man then and...he's happy now because of you...and you're happy because of him. No one wanted to ruin that!"

"You know, I get that it was another time in Lee's life, and in Britt's too and I also know that it's none of my business who he has been with before me, but I feel that it most certainly is when it's my best friend!! The fact that I was not told is why I am so pissed off! How am I supposed to trust anyone when they keep secrets from me?? This...this is why I didn't want another relationship!"

"Josie, not everyone is Gerry or that EJ guy, especially not Lee." Amy reminded you, as if you needed it. You knew damn well Lee was nothing like them, and that's what scared you the most...that he was real.

"How do you know? Did you sleep with him too??"

Amy gasped as you stormed out in tears and went to sit in the stair well to calm down. Now you knew that Lee not only had a fling with his neighbor Angel, but also with your best friend and maybe they were right, that it shouldn't matter because Lee didn't know you then...but you couldn't help it. It did matter to you. Whom else were you going to be blind sided by that Lee slept with?

Lee walked in to find Gordon nose deep in an illegal substance, which was no surprise....but it pissed Lee off that he was doing it there.

"Fuck Gordon, what the hell are you doing!?"

"What's it look like little bro? Want some?"

"Put that shit away. I'm not going to jail because of you."

"Relax! No one is going to see. That's why I came in here."

"Yeah, and the door is unlocked. I just walked in. What if it had been someone else?"

"Well it was nobody...literally."

"Don't think I won't throw your ass out of here. I've taken your disrespect long enough."

"That would be just like you. Throw me out of my own father's celebration of life, just like you've thrown me out of every other part of his life as well."

"You did all of that yourself Gordo. Not me."

"That's alright. I'll get back what's mine. There's a little something there for you on the stand."

Lee went over and picked up two pieces of paper and began to read them.

"You went and did it huh...and obviously before you came to see me today. You're an unbelievable piece of shit, you know that Gordon?"

Just then, Donna came in, annoyed that Gordon had been in there so long.

"What are you guys doing in here? There are guests arriving and asking where you are."

"Oh, just reading Gordon's lawsuit he filed to try and take the farm, among other things that don't belong to him, but you knew that already didn't you Donna?" Lee barked as he threw the papers on the desk beside Gordon. "These are shit. You will not win."

"We will see about that now won't we." Gordon replied.

"I've had enough." Lee flatly stated and picked up Gordon's computer, holding it high above his head so Gordon couldn't reach it, then left the room with it.

"What the hell are you doing Lee?!"

You had just came in to see Lee carrying something quite large out to the balcony with Gordon and Donna chasing after him as everyone watched, so you followed because Lee looked extremely pissed off.

"Give it back man!! Dad gave me that!" Gordon shouted as Lee searched the ground below. Once he saw that there were no people beneath, he hurled the big box over the edge. Gordon ran to the ledge and watched the computer soar to the ground and splinter all over the sidewalk.

"You asshole!!!" Gordon raged. "I almost had it fixed!"

"I suggest you either leave or stay the fuck away from me the rest of the night, or I am going to call the cops and inform them of the contents you brought in here and that are in your system. The choice is yours. Come on Jo."

Lee softly took your hand and led you out to the bar, pouring you both a double of whiskey on the rocks. He knocked his back in one mouthful and then heavily sighed.

"Lee, what just happened?" you asked with wide eyes and great concern.

"He's suing me, just like I said he would. He already had the papers drawn up and fucking brought them here to show me....and he was inhaling some heavy shit when I had walked in as well. Right here at dad's party. Can you believe the nerve of..."

Lee froze in awe when he had turned and actually looked at you.

"Jo...wow...you look...incredible, not that you didn't before."

All you could do was just stare at him, remembering what you had just learned about Britt.

"Thanks.." you managed to squeak out, trying to hold back the tears you had just finally got to stop.

"Where's Britt?" Lee asked.

His questioning of her whereabouts set you off as you broke eye contact with him, trying so hard to keep your forming tears from falling.

"Jo? Sweetheart, what's wrong? You're...you're crying again?" he asked so tenderly as he gently wiped a stray tear from the corner of your eye.

"It's...it's nothing. Umm, just Britt. We had an argument."

You couldn't bring yourself to tell him what it was about...not now anyways.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. She obviously had too much to drink huh?" he inquired with a light smile.

"Yeah..." you frowned.

"Well, ok. Screw her. Let's go mingle and try to have a little fun. My dad wouldn't want any of us moping around and being sad anymore."

You cringed inside. Screw her he certainly did.

Lee went to the front of the room and began talking to everyone.

"My dad's favorite decade was the 80's, which is also when I was growing up. You've all probably noticed this entire penthouse is furnished in nothing but that, which is my way of honoring him and the things he loved. So, without further ado, let's honor him some more and get this party started!!!" Lee shouted as he went over to the stereo and cranked it up.

As you looked all around the room, you were amazed at what Lee had done for his father and he looked so happy about it which was making it very hard for you to stay upset. You decided you were just going to try and shove the horrible information down and try to have some fun with him now that you had calmed down. You weren't angry with him and you slightly understood why he didn't tell you...and you certainly didn't want to lose him over it. Maybe you were making too big of a deal out of it...Lee had a past...so did you. Maybe he would tell you about it someday...but for now, you wanted to focus on the future with him because that was all that should matter,

Lee shook and popped the cork on a bottle of champagne and sprayed it all around the room. Everyone cheered and danced.

"Jo, sweetheart, do you want a glass??"

"Yeah, sure. Thank you."

You took it and hammered it back. Lee gazed at you in astonishment with a huge grin.

"Another, beautiful?"

You smiled so big. "Hit me more."

"You know what everyone?? My baby is sexy as hell!!" Lee blurted out, shocking the shit out of you. Not because of what he did, but what he said. He was proud to have you by his side and wanted to show you off.

You must have turned as red as the curtains as you shyly smiled at him. Regardless of what you knew, he made you feel so damn good...and that's usually when something was bound to go wrong.

"Let's dance!!!" he shouted as the popular David Bowie song came on.

You laughed so hard, that happy tears rolled down your face as you watched him let loose and pump his arm, sounding the locomotive's horn for his dad....in which he had gotten everyone to mimic and follow him around the room like they were a train and Lee was the engine, his dad's favorite part.

Gordon and Donna danced too as if Lee hadn't just trashed his computer, but you knew that was the booze and drugs they were both on.

Lee danced his way over to you and swooped you into his arms, spinning you around and singing to you. God you loved it when he sang to you.

"If you say run, I'll run with you. If you say hide, we'll hide because my love for you would break my heart in two if you should fall into my arms and tremble like a flower."

Your heart skipped a beat about the love part...but you knew he was just singing the words, that he certainly didn't mean anything by it...although you desperately wished he did.

A few hours had went by as everyone danced, drank, ate, and talked. You wondered if Orlando and Ethan were even going to come after what happened with the whole car incident thing. You hoped at least Orlando would, but you couldn't care less about Ethan. A far as you were now concerned about him...he was trouble with a big fat capital T.

"Do you want to know something Jo?" Lee asked as he smiled his quirky smile.

"Sure." you cutely smiled back.

"You make me feel so damn good. So happy. So alive." he said with a now serious face and stroked your cheek, his sparkling cobalt eyes gaping into your soul.

Goosebumps rose all over your skin at his soft tickling touch.

"Right back at ya babe." you replied with a grin, in which Lee ate your words right up.

He went over to the stereo and fumbled through the cd's, then he put one in and hit play.

"Come with me." he whispered and whisked you off to the balcony.

"Dance with me."

Lee reached his hand out to you with the sweetest smile, the moonlight dancing in his eyes.

The song that played shocked the hell out of you. Was this another sign? Did you not just tell yourself earlier that something had to go wrong because you were feeling way too damn good? If it was a sign, you prayed it was a good one and not an omen.

"Now that you're here, I just feel like I'm constantly dreaming." he sang as he rested his forehead on yours.

If there was a heaven, you were in it...sitting on cloud 9 and you didn't wanna come back down.

You both swayed slowly to the music as if no existed but the two of you...until you were at an angle to where you could see inside.

There stood Ethan behind the bar, watching you and Lee like a vulture. He smugly smiled and tipped his glass to you.

And there it was...your nice time with Lee was now ruined. Ethan had a lot of gull to show up after Lee damn near kicked his ass.

Lee noticed your glare and turned to see what had you on edge.

"Ignore him and hold onto me." Lee whispered in your ear as he laid his cheek softly against yours and continued dancing with you.

You did as he said and closed your eyes, burying your face in his neck and pressing yourself into him as you tightened your grip around his neck. Lee softly moaned as you did that and placed his hand on the back of your head. You could feel his warm breath trickle through your hair and down your neck, sending your core into an erotic tizzy. Acting on impulse, you ran your fingers up his neck and through his hair as you brought your nose and mouth to rest upon his open collar bone. His fingers clenched your hair as he deeply exhaled into it.

"Jo..." Lee whispered as his lips trailed across your cheek. "I....I...."

Whatever he was going to tell you wasn't going to be revealed at that moment as an inebriated bawling Britt came rushing onto the balcony.

"Josie...I..I'm so sorry, please, please don't hate me. You're pretty much all I have left. I can't lose you too." she panted and sniffled.

"Britt, this could have waited. I am not going anywhere. You can obviously see that Lee and I are out here ALONE...can you not?"

"Britt, I don't know what happened between you both, but just go lay down or something. Talk to Jo tomorrow when you are sober."

"No, No, you don't understand. She knows Lee. She knows we slept together and now I am going to lose my only true friend."

"You...you...you..what?" Lee stuttered with a shaky voice. "W..why...would you do that??"

Lee's eyelids fluttered as he shamefully looked at you.

Amy came running in out of breath. "I tried to stop her Josie but she literally pushed me down."

"I.. I had to tell her the truth Lee...she figured it out...I'm so sorry!!" Britt babbled on.

"Jo...why..didn't you tell me? I...I would have told you the truth if you had asked."

"Why didn't you tell me Lee?"

"Jo...it was like a century ago. It never even crossed my mind...not once because it meant nothing to me."

"Can you say the same about Ethan little bother?" Gordon quipped as he wobbled up.

Lee gasped as he stared at him in panic.

"Karma's a bitch huh Dr. Dreamy." Gordon reveled as he sipped his whiskey.

"Shut the fuck up Gordon." you snapped. "Lee? W..what's he talking about?"

You were pretty sure you already knew because the signs were all there that you had witnessed ever since Ethan reared his ugly presence in your life, but you wanted to hear Lee say it.

"Now THAT I didn't know about." Britt chimed in with stunned eyes.

"Lee??" you asked again as your eyes began to sting.

Lee stumbled back a step and stood in a daze as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

"I...I...can't do this...."

Lee lowered his head and walked inside, pushing through the crowd and went into another room. Everyone's head turned to the sound of the door slamming shut.

You also went inside and bee lined straight for Ethan.

"Did you put Gordon up to this?"

"I'm sorry?? What are you talking about?"

"Oh spare me Ethan. You didn't just hear all that?? Everyone else sure did and you have been watching me and Lee all night. Is it true?? You...and Lee?"

"Yes. A long time ago. Lee had a partner....me."

"Not that I would defend my brother..." Gordon cut in as he came up. "But, that's stretching the truth a bit Ethan. You and Lee weren't a thing. More like a drug induced fling at a party one night...and you took advantage of that."

"Yeah Gordon, a party held by you in which those drugs were supplied. You were just so quick to throw your own brother under the bus and now you're standing here blaming me for something he chose to do. I didn't take advantage of anything. He wanted to be with me."

"And now he don't. He wants Josie, which I can't say that I blame him. She's a lot prettier than you." Gordon joked as his eyes rolled up and down your body, right in front of Donna. "And now you're jealous. Did you really try to run him off the road man?"

You gave him an appalling glare for his comment about you and then turned back to Ethan.

"So, Orlando was right about you. You're a liar and a con."

"Look, I'm just trying to set the record straight here ok? Lee and I are good friends and I want him to be happy. I would never try to hurt him! You know nothing about him little girl!" Ethan shouted as he was now getting angry.

"Excuse me?? It seems that you know nothing about him because he obviously don't want you and like Gordon said, you're jealous and trying to worm you're way back into his life. He believes you intentionally tried to run him off the road and that you were trying to hurt me! Not him....and I believe him too. Like you were trying to scare me off.... I mean, why would you even come here after that? Was his physical threat not clear enough for you? because I'm pretty sure that was him uninviting you. I'll tell you right now, I will NOT let you hurt him."

"Is this blonde thing for real with people? I would....neverrr...hurt him! What makes you so special anyways? You're not his girlfriend because he certainly don't call you that. In fact, not once have I seen him even kiss you. You came along at a bad time in his life. He's lonely and confused and isn't ready for you. He didn't even trust you enough to tell you about me...You're the present, not his future. You'll see. I'm even willing to bet he hasn't even slept with you...am I right?!"

"You know what, I don't even wanna hear this, this is disgusting. I can't even look at you."

You spun around and went to find Lee, knowing damn well that Ethan's words were nothing but hot air. You may not have known everything about Lee, but clearly Ethan knew nothing at all about him and what you and he shared.

You found the room Lee went into and stood outside the door for a few moments, trying to compose yourself and understand what just happened....but you couldn't, so you just went in.

He stood in the middle of the dimly lit empty room, his eyes welled up with tears as he gazed at you.

"I...I can explain...."

"Please do...because I feel...god I don't even know what I feel right now. I...I was willing to let the Britt thing go, that's why I didn't say anything...but Ethan? I mean...I had an inkling about it but...I just never thought it could be true...and the things he just told me...I don't know what to do with. How could you do this to me??"

"You know, I am tired of being second guessed and distrusted when I have done absolutely nothing wrong. This is all my past that you weren't a part of."

"When have I ever made you feel like I didn't trust you??"

"Right now, about my god damn life!" Lee shouted and now you were just as pissed off as he was.

"Because you should have told me! Instead, you let me find out like that, in front of all those fucking people."

"You just said you don't care about what happened with Britt...so what's this really about huh? It's because of Ethan, which obviously makes a difference to you and that's why I didn't fucking say anything. You know, I was also humiliated out there but you don't seem to care about that."

"I don't care if you slept with a guy Lee!! It's the secrets! Which everyone always seems to keep from me....which leads to my trust issues! But I can clearly see YOU don't trust me."

"I was ashamed alright??! I trust you more than I've ever trusted anyone! Look at everything I have told you. Things that people would consider me crazy for... I..I just didn't know what you would think of me and I was scared I would lose you."

"God Lee, do you really think I am that shallow and judgmental? I have been nothing but kind and understanding with you, even at times when you didn't deserve it!! and I have stood by you through it all!"

"Like right now? because it sure seems that you're not on my side here. Jesus, what the hell did Ethan say to you?"

"I wanna hear what you have to say...but that's right. You don't tell me anything! People that care about each other, talk to each other. We both have pasts and anything that could or would affect you, I have told you about. I don't care who you have slept with but my best friend and some guy that just shows up here wanting to cause us trouble...I think I deserve to know about. I won't do this again Lee. I told myself way before I even met you that I wouldn't, yet here I am being stupid again, setting myself up for more pain...and people, they tried to warn me...but I wouldn't listen because I believed they didn't know you like I do. But it turns out I don't even know you at all...and I won't go any further if this is what it entails. You told me that Elizabeth once told you that you were an accident...maybe I get that now in a sense because I wasn't looking for you...so...you were an accident and I deserve better than this."

"I'm not an accident. We are not an accident. We were meant to find each other. All the signs prove it and you know I never believed in that until you. I deserve better too Jo...I deserve you."

Him telling you that he deserved you after what just happened, made you so angry and you began punching his chest as you cried. He stood there in emotional anguish and took it while he watched your face the entire time. He just wanted to grab you and hold you so tight, even if you fought him....and more than anything, he wanted to tell you how crazy in love with you he was...but something told him not to....that you wouldn't believe him now.

You walked away and stood with your back to him breathing heavily, not knowing what to do. This was killing you, fighting with him. You told yourself you had to let all this go, that Amy was right...Lee was not Gerry, absolutely nothing like him.

Lee came up behind you and reached his trembling hand out to touch you, but he pulled it back before he did, not sure of it was wanted.

"Jo...it was never my intentions to hurt you. I would rather die. I was just...flat out scared. Not everyone would be understanding of my time with Ethan. I've learned things like that the hard way."

"I told you, that's not what this is about." you lowly said, still refusing to turn around.

"I..I know...it's about secrets and trust...Jo, I'll tell you anything you want to know. Just ask me whatever you want to know. We can sit down sometime and I'll tell you my entire life story, although it may put you to sleep."

Lee lightly chuckled but you remained silent and still. He sighed and continued.

"Baby I know you've been scorned really bad before...we both have, but whatever we have here...it's real. I feel it...and I know you feel it too. Please, Jo...don't give up on me...don't give up on us. Now that I have found you, I cannot imagine my world without you in it. Jo, I am so sorry for all of this....so sorry."

You finally turned to face him, dreading to see his beautiful eyes in such pain because you could hear it in his voice.

"What is it that we have here Lee? because I don't know. Actions mean a lot, but words matter too. What are we even doing here?"

Lee peered down at you in confusion. "Jo, what do you mean? I told you I would tell you anything you wanted to know....and I thought telling you that not being able to imagine a world without you spoke volumes. This is about something else, I can feel it. Tell me what Ethan said to you....please."

"Lee...I...it's not about what I want to know...it's about what I want to hear...."

You began to choke up and walked out, remembering how Lee would only get so close to you. Maybe Ethan was right. Maybe you weren't his future.

Lee almost broke down at your departure, trying to understand what you meant.

He knew there was only one other way to get the answers. Ethan...and then he was going to hunt Gordon down for the damage he caused......

[eternal-echoes]

“The makers of puberty blocking drugs such as Lupron and Supprelin warn that possible side effects include emotional instability, mood changes, aggression, nervousness, anxiety, agitation, confusion, delusions, insomnia, and depression, adding that you should "monitor for development or worsening of psychiatric symptoms during treatment."(12) Depression is considered a common side effect of puberty blockers, and according to drug manufacturers, "may be severe."(13)

Girls who take GnRHa experience a significant increase in behavioral and emotional problems and are more likely to self-harm.(14)

According to the largest gender clinic in the UK, after a year of being on puberty blockers, there was a significant increase in young women who agreed with the statement "I deliberately try to hurt or kill myself."(15) It should be noted, however, that there was no control group in this study, and so one cannot infer causation. What's clear, though, is that the drug was hardly curing the psychological distress of the children who took it. Rather, they expressed greater dissatisfaction with their bodies after being on the drug.(16) In the words of a team of researchers who promote the treatment, "It is therefore unlikely that GnRHa treatment will result in significant reduction in body dissatisfaction.’(17)

Understanding the role of hormones in brain functioning helps to explain why the drugs could have a negative emotional impact.

Puberty blocking drugs shut down the production of estrogen and progesterone. However, researchers believe that estrogen can have a protective effect against mental illnesses such as depression, acting as "nature's psychoprotectant."(18) Dr. Karen Berman, a senior investigator for the National Institutes of Mental Health, studied the effect of Lupron on the female brain. After injecting women with the drug, she scanned their brains with a PET scan and found that the activity in the frontal lobes of their brains had slowed to a near stop.(19) This leads to dulled or inappropriate emotions, lack of motivation, impulsiveness, and altered mental states such as delirium, disorientation, and confusion.(20) Studies also showed that puberty blockers cause memory problems and stunt brain development, which is the last thing a young person needs when making life-changing decisions about his or her future.(21) Therefore, those who argue that the outcomes of puberty blockers are uncertain are guilty of what some psychologists call "HARKing:" hypothesizing after the results are known.”

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

—

Work cited:

12) Safety and Tolerability Profile, https://www.supprelinla.com/hcp/safety-tolerability-profile/; https://www.lupronpedpro.com/content/lupronped-hcp/countries/north-america/ us/en_us/pages.html, https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2014/020517s036_019732s041lbl.pdf

13) "Package leaflet: Decapeptyl" SR 11.25 mg," Ipsen Ltd. 2017, retrieved from http://www .medicines.org.uk/emc/product/780/pil.

14) Cf. Biggs, "The Tavistock's Experiment with Puberty Blockers," 6.

15) The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Board of Directors, June 23, 2015; Cf. Cohen, Deborah and Hannah Barnes, "Transgender treatment: Puberty blockers study under investigation," BBC Newsnight (July 22, 2019).

16) Cf. Biggs, "The Tavistock's Experiment with Puberty Blockers," 9.

17) P. Carmichael et al., "Short-term Outcomes of Pubertal Suppression in a Selected Cohort of 12 to 15 Year Old Young People with Persistent Gender Dysphoria in the UK," PLoS One 16:2 (February 2, 2021).

18) G. Fink et al., "Estrogen Control of Central Neurotransmission: Effect on Mood, Mental State, and Memory," Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, 16:3 (1996), 325-344.

19) Blum, Sex on the Brain, 206.

20) Cf. Chandler Marrs, "Lupron Side Effects Survey Results Part One: Scope and Severity," Hormones Matter, October 4, 2017.

21) Cf. M. Schneider et al., "Brain Maturation, Cognition and Voice Pattern in a Gender Dysphoria Case under Pubertal Suppression," Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 11 (November 2017), 1, 4-6; "Gender Dysphoria in Children: Understanding the Science and Medicine," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOniPhuyXeY.

—

For more recommended resources on gender dysphoria, click here.

[brian-in-finance]

… to @bcacstuff and her Anon who said

Looks like Cait is on an interesting path in HW not just as member of The Academy of Motion Pictures and actress but also making things work in this industry from BTS.

ACADEMY REVEALS 2024 NICHOLL SCREENWRITING FELLOWS

Posted: Monday, September 30, 2024

LOS ANGELES, CA – Four individuals and one writing team have been selected as recipients of the 2024 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Each individual and writing team will receive a $35,000 prize and mentorship from an Academy member throughout their fellowship year. They also will participate in a week of virtual seminars, a virtual meet and greet with the Nicholl Fellowships committee, and in-person networking events, including a celebration in Beverly Hills on October 29. The Nicholl Fellowships were established in 1985 through the support of Gee Nicholl in memory of her husband, Don Nicholl.

The 2024 Nicholl Fellows are (listed alphabetically by author):

Alysha Chan and David Zarif (Los Angeles, CA), “Miss Chinatown”

Jackie Yee follows in her mother’s footsteps on her quest to win the Los Angeles Miss Chinatown pageant.

Colton Childs (Waco, TX), “Fake-A-Wish”

Despite their forty-year age gap, and the cancer treatment confining them to their small Texas town, two gay men embark on a road trip to San Francisco to grant themselves the Make-A-Wish they’re too old to receive.

Charmaine Colina (Los Angeles, CA), “Gunslinger Bride”

With a bounty on her head, a young Chinese-American gunslinger poses as a mail order bride to hide from the law and seek revenge for her murdered family.

Ward Kamel (Brooklyn, NY), “If I Die in America”

After the sudden death of his immigrant husband, an American man’s tenuous relationship with his Muslim in-laws reaches a breaking point as he tries to fit into the funeral they’ve arranged in the Middle East. Adapted from the SXSW® Grand Jury-nominated short film of the same name.

H (West Chester, PA), “The Superb Lyrebird & Other Creatures”

A neurodivergent teen who envisions people as animated creatures, battles an entitled rival for a life-changing art scholarship, while her sister unwisely crosses the line to help.

A total of 5,500 scripts, from 80 countries, were submitted for the 2024 competition.

The 2024 finalists are (listed alphabetically by author):

Kelly Beck-Byrnes, “Where the Boxelders Grow”

Tate Hamilton, “Delivery Girl”

Jamie Murphy, “Lights over Idaho”

Adele Smaill, “No Ghosts Tonight”

Justine Suh, “Deep”

The five fellowships are awarded with the understanding that recipients will complete feature-length screenplays during their fellowship year. The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee is chaired by Julie Lynn (Producers Branch). The members of the committee are Aldis Hodge and Caitríona Balfe (Actors Branch); Julien Thuan (Artist Representatives); Susan Shopmaker and Academy governor Kim Taylor-Coleman (Casting Directors Branch); Andrzej Bartkowiak (Cinematographers Branch); Allison Anders (Directors Branch); Bruce Hendricks and Marcus Hu (Executives Branch); Blaise Noto (Marketing and Public Relations Branch); Jason Michael Berman, Susan Cartsonis, Julia Chasman and Linda Reisman (Producers Branch); Sue Chan (Production Design Branch); Bobbi Banks (Sound Branch); and Destin Daniel Cretton, Susannah Grant, Ehren Kruger, Adele Lim, Justin Marks, Zak Penn and Katie Silberman (Writers Branch).

The global competition, which aims to identify and encourage talented new screenwriters, has awarded 186 fellowships since 1986. In 2024, several past Nicholl fellows added to their feature film and television credits:

Aaron Chung is a staff writer on Apple+’s “WondLa.”

Elizabeth Chomko directed the docuseries “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints.”

Eric Nazarian wrote and directed “Die like a Man.”

“Holy Irresistible” is from Andrew Shearer and Nicholas Sherman’s 2007 Nicholl-winning script.

“Interstate” is from Anthony Jaswinski’s 1997 Nicholl-winning script.

Jason Micallef is an executive producer and writer on Disney+’s “The Acolyte.”

R.J. Daniel Hanna wrote and directed two features: “Succubus” and “Hard Miles,” which he co-wrote.

For more information about the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, visit oscars.org/nicholl.

Oscars Press

Brian 29 June 2022

Remember Caitríona’s latest Academy role?

[hotvintagepoll]

hi!! when you get a chance to look at the hot ladies submissions, do you mind telling us which ones are guaranteed for the tournament? i wanna submit but i dont have much free time, so id rather focus on submitting my underrated girls (missed my chance for farley granger but i will not miss it again!)

I did a quick skim and I can tell you these ladies are definitely accounted for by now:

Ingrid Berman

Katherine Hepburn

Clara Bow

Hedy Lamaar

Grace Kelly

Audrey Hepburn

Barbara Stanwyck

Marlene Deitrich

Lauren Bacall

Julie Andrew

Judy Garland

That doesn't mean you can't still submit propaganda for them—the more the merrier—but these ladies are already definitely in the tournament by now. When we're closer to the tournament proper I can post a fuller list.

[melt-into-the-night]

Alright, Alexa Havins is already winning me over as Lulu. I got mad Julie Berman Lulu vibes today from her in her scenes with Cody today. Not once did I see an ounce of Lulu’s previous personality in Emme’s portrayal.

[hpowellsmith]

Books of 2024

Here are the books I've read this year; favourites are bolded.

Currently I'm partway through First Class Murder by Robin Stevens, A Blackened Mirror by Jo Graham, and The Grace of Sorcerers by Maria Ying.

January

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed (reread)

Dancing on Eggshells: Kitchen, Ballroom, & The Messy Inbetween - John Whaite

Maw - Jude Ellison S. Doyle

The Easternmost Sky - Juliet Blaxland

The Lives of Christopher Chant - Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Toto the Ninja Cat and the Legend of the Wildcat - Dermot O'Leary

Untamed Shore - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

February

Regeneration - Pat Barker (reread)

Jojo: Finally Home - Johannes Radebe

The Neighbors - Jude Doyle

Chewing the Fat: Tasting Notes from a Greedy Life - Jay Rayner

Spear - Nicola Griffith

March

Brute (ed. Steve Berman)

Love Kills Twice - Rien Gray

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker (reread)

Love Bleeds Deep - Rien Gray

Love Burns Bright - Rien Gray

A Love So Dark - Rien Gray

Valerin the Fair - Rien Gray

April

The Wild Silence - Raynor Winn

A Strip of Velvet - Rien Gray

Martis the Brazen - Rien Gray

Seure the Tempered - Rien Gray

May

The Woods All Black - Lee Mandelo

Hild - Nicola Griffith

June

Manhunt - Gretchen Felker-Martin

Perfumes: the A-Z Guide - Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez

A Guest in the House - Emily Carroll

July

Saturnalia - Stephanie Feldman

Nothing But Blackened Teeth - Cassandra Khaw

Vivi Conway and the Haunted Quest - Lizzie Huxley-Jones

Nevada - Imogen Binnie

Gender Failure - Ivan E Coyote and Rae Spoon

Boys Weekend - Mattie Lubchansky

Small Beauty - jia qing wilson-yang

Cuckoo - Gretchen Felker-Martin

Darryl - Jackie Ess

August

Henry Henry - Allen Bratton

Landlines - Raynor Winn

October

The Scales of Seduction - Rien Gray

November

The Devil Thinks I'm Pretty - Charlene Elsby

Murder Most Unladylike - Robin Stevens (reread)

December

Arsenic for Tea - Robin Stevens (reread)

From the Belly - Emmett Nahil

Mouth to Mouth to Mouth - wilt

[citizenscreen]

Producer Pandro S. Berman (March 28, 1905 – July 13, 1996), pictured with Katharine Hepburn and Vincente Minnelli on set of UNDERCURRENT (1936)

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Supreme Court Overturns DOJ's Use of Key J6 Felony Court

"Today's decision means Attorney General Merrick Garland and federal judges in Washington wrongfully prosecuted roughly 350 J6ers with the post-Enron felony"

JULIE KELLY

JUN 28, 2024 In a devastating but well-deserved blow to the Department of Justice’s criminal prosecution of January 6 protesters, the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned the DOJ’s use of 18 USC 1512(c)(2), the most prevalent felony in J6 cases.

The statute, commonly referred to as “obstruction of an official proceeding,” has been applied in roughly 350 J6 cases; it also represents two of four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s J6-related criminal indictment of Donald Trump in Washington. 

In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the “c2” subsection is tethered to the “c1” subsection that addresses tampering with a record, document, or “object.”

From the opinion:

Roberts was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the dissent (!) joined by Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

Today’s decision means hundreds of Americans have been wrongfully prosecuted by Attorney General Merrick Garland as he insists his department is dedicated to upholding the “rule of law” and pursuing justice “without fear or favor.”

An Irreversible Black Eye for DOJ and Federal Courts in Washington

The matter originated in the case of Joseph Fischer, a Pennsylvania man who attended Trump’s speech and later went to the Capitol. According to court documents, Fischer briefly entered the building around 3:25 p.m., nearly an hour after the joint session of Congress to certify the electoral college votes had recessed. He exited about four minutes later.

In March 2021, a D.C. grand jury indicted Fischer on numerous counts including 1512(c)(2). The statute reads:

Whoever corruptly— 

(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or 

(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.

It is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Fischer, in addition to many J6ers facing the count, asked his judge to dismiss the charge. Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by Trump, dismissed the count against Fischer and two other defendants by finding the language in the post-Enron/Arthur Anderson statute covered tampering with records or documents not interrupting a meeting of Congress. The DOJ appealed Nichols’ decision.

In December, SCOTUS granted Fischer’s petition to grant cert seeking to reverse the appellate court’s mandate. Oral arguments were held on April 16.

Nichols is the only judge to have dismissed the count; 18 district and circuit court judges in Washington refused to dismiss the count. The judges essentially enabled the Biden DOJ’s unlawful pursuit of Americans who protested Biden’s election that day.

The List of Shame:

Judge Beryl Howell (Obama, former chief judge)

Judge James Boasberg (Obama, current chief judge)

Judge Rudolph Contreras (Obama)

Judge Trevor McFadden (Trump)

Judge John Bates (GW Bush)

Judge Amit Mehta (Obama)

Judge Dabny Friedrich (Trump)

Judge Royce Lamberth (Reagan)

Judge Richard Leon (GW Bush)

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (Clinton)

Judge Amy Berman Jackson (Obama)

Judge Timothy Kelly (Trump)

Judge Randolph Moss (Clinton)

Judge Paul Friedman (Clinton)

Judge Christopher Cooper (Obama)

D.C. Circuit Court Judge Florence Pan (Biden)—Pan wrote both appellate court decisions upholding 1512c2

D.C. Circuit Court Judge Justin Walker (Trump)

D.C. Circuit Court Judge Cornelia Pillard

There Goes Your Summer, Your Honor

The federal courthouse in Washington has been bracing for a flood of motions post-Fischer; a few judges have released individuals from prison in anticipation of a reversal. Roughly 110 J6ers have been sentenced to prison on 1512(c)(2) convictions; several J6ers were held under pretrial detention for being charged with the nonviolent obstruction count alone.

But despite the law’s legal limbo over the past year, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, a Biden appointee, continued to indict J6ers on 1512(c)(2) while some judges continued to sentence those convicted to lengthy prison terms. Last month, Beryl Howell, the former chief judge who upheld the 1512(c)(2) charges for defendants in her courtroom, sentenced a Missouri man to 60 months in prison for the 1512 conviction and assault on police.

In January 2022, Howell gave the green light for her colleagues to support the DOJ’s use of the obstruction count. Here is what she said in denying a motion to dismiss filed by two J6ers:

“For over 200 years, the peaceful transition of power from one presidential administration to another has been marked with Congress's certification of the Electoral College vote; and this event has been respectfully observed by American citizens, but not on January 6, 2021. And I start with this historical fact because what happened on January 6th was a chilling new type of criminal conduct to which our criminal laws have never before had to be applied. Application of criminal laws to conduct never before seen, like what occurred on January 6, 2021, appropriately generates the kind of legal questions the defendants raise here about whether the criminal law fits the charged criminal conduct.”

The first judge to uphold the obstruction charge in J6 cases was Trump-appointee Dabny Friedrich. In 2021, she agreed that interrupting a meeting of Congress met the definition of “official proceeding” and that the statute’s broad language did not require the government to prove the conduct involved tampering with records or documents.

Ironically—or not—Friedrich is married to Matthew Friedrich, a former DOJ official who worked on the Enron Task Force alongside Andrew Weissman and current deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco. The 1512(c)(2) statute was a product of the Enron/Arthur Anderson investigation; Weissmann, as the lead prosecutor for Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the bogus Russiagate probe, pushed the DOJ to charge Trump with 1512(c)(2) while in office.

Retired judge Thomas Hogan recently warned how a SCOTUS’s reversal of 1512(c)(2) would affect the DC courthouse. Here is Hogan, who upheld the statute in J6 prosecutions, with former DOJ official and FISAgate mastermind Mary McCord:

Reacting to the SCOTUS decision, Geri Perna, aunt of Matthew Perna, told me this by email:

“When Matthew was unexpectedly charged with the felony of Obstruction of an Official Proceeding—after initially facing only misdemeanors—his world collapsed. The weight of a potential lengthy prison sentence bore down on him, filling his days with insurmountable worry and anxiety. At that time, there was no glimmer of hope that this severe charge would be dropped.

Matthew has now been dead for 28 months. In the wake of his passing, the Supreme Court of the United States is finally set to rule on whether the Department of Justice wrongfully applied 1512(c)(2) in January 6 cases. As much as I am hopeful for a just ruling in favor of the January 6 defendants, I am consumed by a profound sense of loss and anger. My nephew's death was both avoidable and senseless.

I feel cheated, and if that sounds selfish, then so be it. The pain of losing Matthew under such circumstances is a burden I carry every day. I fervently hope that those responsible for wielding this charge erroneously will be held accountable in a court of law. However, I am not holding my breath.”

[hooked-on-elvis]

Elvis escaped a crew-length haircut more than once before the army

It is widely known by the fans that one funny story of how Red West saved Elvis from getting his hair cut off by bullies when he was only a teenager attending the Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee. For those who never heard/read this story before, well.. long story short, Elvis was kind of a misfit in High School because of the way he used to dress different from his mates. "He looked like a sore thumb," said Ronny Trout, a classmate who shared a workbench with Elvis in wood shop in school (as wrote by Peter Guralnick in one of his books on Elvis). While all the guys usually had crew cuts and dressed in jeans, Elvis had this "movie star" look. Apart from the flashy clothes — such as ascot ties and dress pants Presley is said to have worn while attending classes — he also would proudly show off his truck driver sideburns and a duck tail hairstyle around the hallways. Some of the kids in his school just couldn't stand it. Most of them thought Elvis looked weird, possibly they got the impression as if he was cocky or something but more likely they just found him strange, out of place. One day some guys corned Elvis in the bathroom and threatened to cut his hair right off. Red West came in just in time. Even tho they weren't friends yet, that selfless good deed of Red turned Elvis into a, let's say, fan of his. Presley was beyond grateful for the unexpected help. This was before Elvis was, you know, "Elvis". West and Presley became friends after this day, little by little - not immediately, and it turns out that a long, long term friendship between the two came out of that uncanny situation. At a point, Red West became part of Elvis' personal security guard and remained friends with him up until July 1976, a little more than one year previous to Elvis's death in August 1977. Anyway, Red's efforts only postponed Elvis' haircut. Presley actually had to surrender to the crew cut style in March 1958 when he was inducted into the U.S. Army. But did you know before the Army's intervention and after the High School incident, there was another time when Presley's hair almost was chopped off? That was during movie production of "Jailhouse Rock", in 1957.

The still photographs of Elvis wearing the short "Butch" wig were taken on Monday, May 13, 1957. William Tuttle (head of the make-up at MGM Studios) and his department produced very convincing results. This was the first time the wig was ready to be fitted, and the first scene shot using the wig was on May 20, scene 11 - Barber Shop. Elvis is wearing the wardrobe for Scenes 5 & 6 - Courtroom.

Having read the script for Jailhouse Rock, Elvis was fully aware that the storyline called for his character to be sent to prison, and was told by the studio that, to be authentic, he would have to get his hair clipped. Elvis set off a personal appearance tour, prior to reporting to MGM Studios in Hollywood. The short tour commenced on March 28, 1957. The first stop was Chicago, at a press conference at the Saddle and Sirloin Club at the Stockyards Inn that afternoon, when Elvis spoke to the assembled press. When the subject of his haircut for his new picture was raised, he revealed: 'When I get back to Hollywood, I'm gonna have my hair cut. They're gonna cut it down to crew length for this new movie. Personally, I don't care if they cut my hair, I don't think it makes much difference. Because it'll grow out again.'

March 28, 1957. Elvis Presley at a press conference at the Saddle and Sirloin Club at the Stockyards Inn, Chicago, Illinois.

Within a week, MGM Studios and producer, Pandro S. Berman, were swamped with four thousand letter and post-cards from Presley fans begging that the studio let their hero act with his original hair. "Don't Be Cruel - Don't Cut Elvis' hair," they demanded in varying terms. Some threatened to boycott the picture; some said they'd see it anyway because they'd always be loyal to Elvis - but they'd be "All Shook Up." It was decided something had to be done to save Elvis' hair and also alleviate the fans' feelings, so the Studio started to look at alternative ideas with tests quickly set up in the Studio make-up department under the stewardship of William Turtle, head of the make-up at MGM Studios. Elvis revealed the solution to columnist Aline Mosby, 'So now the studio has decided I'll wear a wig, a crew-cut wig, for the prison scenes.' During pre-production, tests were undertakes with the 35mm film camera, to establish any issue. It was realized by Director of Cinematography, Robert J. Bronner, that Elvis' hair required a red tint due to the black and white film. Elvis later confirmed this in an interview once filming had been completed: 'My hair will look the same, except it was reddened because in black-and-white it photographed like a cap instead of hair.'

The fans plea worked good this time but there's the old saying that goes like: "what's meant to be will be".

Elvis Presley gets his hair cut before entering the Army, at Fort Chaffee in Barling, Arkansas. Presley entered the service March 24, 1958 at Fort Chaffee Reception Station. Picture of the 23-year-old rock star and barber Pete Peterson.

On December 10, 1957 Elvis received a letter from the Memphis Draft Board notifying him he was up for the next military draft. Presley's fans, once more, confident that their pleas would be heard just as they were by the Hollywood people, begun sending hundreds of letters to certainly everyone they could find would be helpful on the matter. They begged, "Please, please, do not touch Elvis' hair!" — some of them even felt kinda "suicidal" about Elvis' hair being cut off. One of the fan letters addressed to then U.S. President, read: "Dear President Eisenhower, My girlfriends and I are writing all the way from Montana. We think it's bad enough to send Elvis Presley to the army, but if you cut his sideburns of, we will just die."

NO DEAL WAS MADE THIS TIME. On March 24, 1958 Elvis was inducted into the U.S. Army and finally had to surrender to the crew-haircut. Truth be told, his fresh unfamiliar haircut didn't affect a bit his exquisite beauty - if anything, Presley appealed even worse to his female audience as a soldier.

Well, that's it. There it goes the story of how it took at least three attempts, including one movie and the U.S. government, to finally get that famous sideburns and pompadour out of Elvis' pretty little head.

SOURCE: Excerpts from book "The Making Of Jailhouse Rock" (Book "Movie") by David English and Pål Granlund (2021).

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

incent Sumpter, a 22-year-old accused of stabbing a Jewish man over the weekend, was indicted, according to reports on Monday.

At around 2:00 am on Saturday morning, Sumpter allegedly approached a group of Jewish people on Kingston Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. Footage showed an assailant stabbing of 30-year-old Yechiel Michael Dabrowskin before chasing the group and then turning to flee.

Sumpter was reportedly charged with eight felonies including assault as a hate crime for the incident.

The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment. Rabbi Yaakov Berman, the Chabad spokesman for the community, said that Sumpter asked the group during the altercation, “Do you want to die?” and shouted, “Free Palestine!”

“This is an extremely serious incident,” Berman posted on X/Twitter. “The victim could have been killed. This act of hateful violence highlights the dangerous impact of antisemitic incitement and hate propagated by some local politicians and leaders in New York and across the United States.”

Dabrowskin is Israeli and came to Crown Heights, the site of the attack, to study in a yeshiva there. The stabbing took place near the Chabad Hasidic movement’s headquarters.

The incident came amid heightened tensions in the US, with a sharp increase in hate crimes against Jews being recorded amid the Israel-Hamas war.

[shannendoherty-fans]

Another month without her :( This was what Time published when she passed away, just found it recently but it's beautiful so I wanted to share it:

Remembering Shannen Doherty, the Quintessential Gen X Girl

Shannen Doherty in 2002SGranitz/WireImage via Getty Images

By Judy Berman — July 14, 2024 9:35 AM EDT

Shannen Doherty epitomized the experience of growing up female in the ’90s. Like her iconic Beverly Hills, 90210 character, Brenda Walsh, she contained a volatile mix of Gen X angst, teen fragility and feminist grit. She thrived as a porcelain-skinned, dark-haired drama queen in a world of tan, blonde valley girls, and owned her identity as an angry young woman before Courtney Love and Elizabeth Wurtzel made it a trend. She wasn’t for everyone, but that was part of her appeal.

Celebrity was not always kind to Doherty, who died on July 13at age 53 after a nine-year struggle with breast cancer. Though she’d been acting professionally for a decade when Fox’s 90210 debuted in 1990, the actor rocketed to full-on fame as the pioneering teen soap about social politics at West Beverly High slowly rose in the ratings. Tabloids sank their fangs into the young, photogenic cast, slotting Doherty—who was still 19 when the show premiered—into the role of villain. Called out for her partying, her tumultuous romantic relationships and her reportedly imperious behavior on set, she was let go from the long-running drama after four seasons.

“I was 21 years old, trying to grow up and figure out who I was,” Doherty explained to TIME in 1998. “I didn’t consciously think, ‘Maybe I should be real low-key and stay in my house.’ Instead I was like, ‘I’m 21 and I can go out and have a great time and experience the whole college life.’” In retrospect, the typically self-aware actor concluded that she had made herself an “easy target.” With the hindsight of a few additional decades, it also seems clear that the media had been excessively hard on a young woman coming of age in front of paparazzi flashbulbs.

Despite producer Aaron Spelling and creator Darren Star’s attempts to replace Brenda with other brunette troublemakers, the show was never the same without Doherty. 90210’s teenage characters had begun their lives as antiquated teen-movie stereotypes: Brenda’s twin brother, Brandon, was the all-American golden boy; Kelly, the pretty queen bee; Steve, the fratty bro; Donna, the sweetheart; David, the annoying little brother. Luke Perry’s motorcycle-riding bad boy was James Dean with a trust fund. Doherty was the first to make her character—conceived as a self-conscious Midwestern transplant—into something more authentic and contemporary.

Infused with Doherty’s preternatural fire, Brenda became a moody brat, yes, but also an earnest romantic who channeled her overabundance of feelings into a love affair with theater. Her self-righteous smirk, withering glare and wide, mischievous grin captured the emotional extremes of adolescence to an extent that words could never quite express. In the early ’90s, after a decade that saw a massive right-wing backlash to the gains of second-wave feminism, America was waking up to the rage of a new generation of women. Not long after 90210 emerged, female-dominated punk bands like L7, Bikini Kill and Hole stormed the rock mainstream—and Doherty’s performance began to look not just inspired, but also prescient.

Those girl-power undertones didn’t stop Brenda from battling Kelly (Jennie Garth, also rumored to be Doherty’s biggest behind-the-scenes rival) for Dylan in one of the show’s most memorable storylines. When she lost her virginity with him at the end of Season 1, local affiliates blasted the producers over the consequence-free depiction of teen sex. Looking back on the characters’ relationship in a 2008 interview with the New York Times, Doherty recalled “how messed up, sometimes, it could be, but ultimately there was love between them, and then eventually they grew apart.” For her, their romance was a funny, ultimately humane tale of a girl trying too hard to become the person she thinks her boyfriend wants her to be. “It’s kind of a good lesson,” she noted, “just be yourself and be comfortable in your own skin.” Four decades in Hollywood seemed to have led the actor, who was open about her mistakes, to a similar conclusion.

Born in Memphis, Tenn. on April 12, 1971, Doherty lived below the Mason-Dixon line for long enough to absorb Southern Baptist values fostered by her mother Rosa’s side of the family. When she was six, her parents moved Shannen and her older brother, Sean, to Los Angeles, where her father, Tom, had bought a trucking company. Though their fortunes fluctuated throughout her childhood, she soon discovered her talent for acting in a church production of Snow White. In 1982, the same year she voiced Teresa Brisby in the animated classic The Secret of NIMH, she nabbed the role of Jenny Wilder in Little House on the Prairie. “That show changed my life,” Doherty told People in a 1992 cover story, recalling the advice its executive producer and star Michael Landon gave her: “Always stick up for yourself. Never let anybody walk all over you.”

By the mid-’80s, Doherty had aged into the decade’s booming teen culture, racking up Young Artist Award nominations for roles in long-forgotten shows like Our House, as well as starring in the silly flick Girls Just Want to Have Fun alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt. Viewers got their first glimpse of her mean-girl swagger in 1989’s Heathers, the cult black comedy that cast her as one of three identically named preppies who rule their high school with manicured fists. A wickedly funny funeral scene finds Doherty’s Heather Duke, decked out in a big hat and opera gloves, grinning beatifically as she thanks Jesus for the death of her friend.

For better or worse, it was 90210 that defined her public life after 1990, spawning anti-fanzines and punk singles that proclaimed their hatred of Brenda and earning Doherty a “difficult” reputation that she never lived down. But she did have fun with her image in the indie movies she made after leaving the show; Doherty is incandescent as an aggrieved girlfriend in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats and hilarious in a brief role as a day-glo ditz in Gregg Araki’s Nowhere.

Controversy followed her to the WB’s Charmed, a breezy supernatural drama also produced by Spelling, where for three seasons beginning in 1998 she turned in feisty performances as the eldest of three unfeasibly attractive witch sisters. Amid reports of clashes with co-star Alyssa Milano, Doherty’s character was killed off and Rose McGowan signed on to replace her.

Doherty was in and out of the spotlight after that, appearing in the short-lived 2004 Fox soap North Shore and, two years later, hosting an Oxygen reality show called Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty, in which she helped wannabe singles dump their significant others. Despite her abrupt exit from Beverly Hills, the franchise came calling again in 2008, with the CW reboot 90210. And she agreed to reprise the role of Brenda—now a famous stage actor—in a guest arc. “I didn’t want it to be like she was still stuck in high school with the same attitude,” Doherty told the Times in 2008, explaining that she had vetted the producers’ new vision for Brenda to ensure that the character had evolved. “Although I don’t think Brenda was mean, she reacted to the things that were happening around her, and she reacted as a teenager does.”

Following brief marriages to Ashley Hamilton (the son of George Hamilton) in 1993 and Rick Salomon (the poker pro best known for co-starring in Paris Hilton’s sex tape) in 2002, Doherty settled down with photographer Kurt Iswarienko in 2011; WE tv reality show Shannen Says chronicled their wedding preparations. Yet tragedy struck in 2015, when Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a brief remission, she revealed on Good Morning America in February 2020 that her cancer was back and she’d been living with a stage 4 diagnosis for a year. “I don’t think that I’ve processed it yet. It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” she said in the tearful interview. “There are definitely days where I say, ‘Why me?’ And then I go, ‘Well, why not me? Who else?’” Still going strong that fall, Doherty reflected on her life with unprecedented vulnerability in a widely read Elle profile. After an honest internal reckoning, she explained, “what I came out with was, I have good karma. It may not seem like it, but I’ve been a really good human being.”

Doherty got a final opportunity to revisit Brenda Walsh—and prove she could laugh at herself—in 2019’s deeply self-aware BH90210, a silly but mostly fun meta-revival on Fox that had the original cast playing exaggerated versions of themselves. In storylines caricatured from real life, Shannen was the free-spirited, post-fame holdout, and the one whose paycheck was the envy of her castmates. On Entertainment Tonight, Doherty explained that she’d decided to participate as a tribute to Luke Perry, who had died following a stroke that March. “Replaying Brenda was something I said I wouldn't do twice and I've replayed her now twice, so I guess I could never say I'm never going to do something again because I end up doing it,” she said. “As [Perry’s] on-set family, I felt like it was an important time for all of us to come together to honor him.”

That both actors would die young feels tragic enough to come from the melodramatic mind of the character from whom Doherty’s identity proved so inextricable. It’s a small consolation that we’ll remember them at their most romantic, as two teenage rebels with the world at their feet.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Bill Barr: The GOP's master 'fixer' for decades exposed

Thom Hartmann

April 17, 2024 3:53AM ET

Congressman Jim Jordan wanted revenge on behalf of Donald Trump against Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for charging Trump with election interference in Manhattan.

He threatened Bragg with “oversight”: dragging him before his committee, threatening him with contempt of Congress; putting a rightwing target on Bragg’s back by publicizing him to draw sharpshooters from as far away as Wyoming or Idaho; and facing the possibility of going to jail if he didn’t answer Jordan’s questions right. Jordan, James Comer, and Bryan Steil — three chairmen of three different committees — wrote to Bragg:

“By July 2019 ... federal prosecutors determined that no additional people would be charged alongside [Michael] Cohen. ... [Y]our apparent decision to pursue criminal charges where federal authorities declined to do so requires oversight....”

They were furious that Bragg would prosecute Trump for a crime that the federal Department of Justice had already decided in 2019 and announced that they weren’t going to pursue.

But why didn’t Bill Barr’s Department of Justice proceed after they’d already put Michael Cohen in prison for a year for delivering the check to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet at least until after the election, and then lying about it? Why didn’t they go after the guy who ordered the check written, the guy who’d had sex with Daniels, the guy whose run for the presidency was hanging in the balance?

Why didn’t the Department of Justice at least investigate (they have a policy against prosecuting a sitting president) the then-president’s role in the crime they put Cohen in prison for but was directed by, paid for, and also committed by Donald Trump?

Turns out, Geoffrey Berman — the lifelong Republican and U.S. Attorney appointed by Trump to run the prosecutor’s office at the Southern District of New York — wrote a book, Holding the Line, published in September, 2022, about his experiences during that era.

In it, he came right out and accused his boss Bill Barr of killing the federal investigation into Trump’s role of directing and covering up that conspiracy to influence the 2016 election. Had Barr not done that, Trump could have been prosecuted in January of 2021, right after he left office. And Jim Jordan couldn’t complain that Alvin Bragg was pushing a case the feds had decided wasn’t worth it.

As The Washington Post noted when the book came out:

“He [Berman] says Barr stifled campaign finance investigations emanating from the Cohen case and even floated seeking a reversal of Cohen’s conviction — just like Barr would later do with another Trump ally, Michael Flynn. (Barr also intervened in the case of another Trump ally, Roger Stone, to seek a lighter sentence than career prosecutors wanted.)”

Which is why Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg had to pick up the case, if the crime was to be exposed and prosecuted.

After all, this crime literally turned the 2016 election to Trump. Without it, polling shows and political scientists argue, Hillary Clinton would have been our president for at least four years and Trump would have retired into real estate obscurity.

But Bill Barr put an end to Berman’s investigation, according to Berman. The DOJ pretended to be investigating Trump for another few months, then quietly announced they weren’t going to continue the investigation. The news media responded with a shrug of the shoulders and America forgot that Trump had been at the center of Cohen’s crime.

In 2023, the New York Times picked up Bill Barr’s cover story and ran with it, ignoring Berman’s claims, even though he was the guy in charge of the Southern District of New York. The article essentially reported that Main Justice wouldn’t prosecute because Cohen wouldn’t testify to earlier crimes, Trump might’ve been ignorant of the law, and that the decision was made by prosecutors in New York and not by Barr.

Incomplete testimony and ignorance of the law have rarely stopped prosecutors in the past from a clear case like this one appears to be (Trump signed the check and Cohen had a recording of their conversation, after all), but the story stuck and the Times ran with it.

In contrast, Berman wrote:

“While Cohen had pleaded guilty, our office continued to pursue investigations related to other possible campaign finance violations [including by Trump]. When Barr took over in February 2019, he not only tried to kill the ongoing investigations but—incredibly—suggested that Cohen’s conviction on campaign finance charges be reversed. Barr summoned Rob Khuzami in late February to challenge the basis of Cohen’s plea as well as the reasoning behind pursuing similar campaign finance charges against other individuals [including Trump]. … “The directive Barr gave Khuzami, which was amplified that same day by a follow-up call from O’Callaghan, was explicit: not a single investigative step could be taken, not a single document in our possession could be reviewed, until the issue was resolved. … “About six weeks later, Khuzami returned to DC for another meeting about Cohen. He was accompanied by Audrey Strauss, Russ Capone, and Edward “Ted” Diskant, Capone’s co-chief. Barr was in the room, along with Steven Engel, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and others from Main Justice.”

Summarizing the story, Berman wondered out loud exactly why Bill Barr had sabotaged extending their investigation that could lead to an indictment of Trump when he left office:

“But Barr’s posture here raises obvious questions. Did he think dropping the campaign finance charges would bolster Trump’s defense against impeachment charges? Was he trying to ensure that no other Trump associates or employees would be charged with making hush-money payments and perhaps flip on the president? Was the goal to ensure that the president could not be charged after leaving office? Or was it part of an effort to undo the entire series of investigations and prosecutions over the past two years of those in the president’s orbit (Cohen, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn)?”

In retrospect, the answer appears to be, “All of the above.”

And that wasn’t Barr’s only time subverting justice while heading the Justice Department. Berman says he also ordered John Kerry investigated for possible prosecution for violating the Logan Act (like Trump is doing now!) by engaging in foreign policy when not in office.

Barr even killed a federal investigation into Turkish bankers, after Turkish dictator Erdoğan complained to Trump.

Most people know that when the Mueller investigation was completed — documenting ten prosecutable cases of Donald Trump personally engaging in criminal obstruction of justice and witness tampering to prevent the Mueller Report investigators from getting to the bottom of his 2016 connections to Russia — Barr buried the report for weeks.

He lied about it to America and our news media for almost a full month, and then released a version so redacted it’s nearly meaningless. (Merrick Garland, Barr’s heir to the AG job, is still hiding large parts of the report from the American people, another reason President Biden should replace him.)

While shocking in its corruption, as I noted here last month, this was not Bill Barr‘s first time playing cover-up for a Republican president who’d committed crimes that could rise to the level of treason against America.

He’s the exemplar of the “old GOP” that helped Nixon cut a deal with South Vietnam to prolong the War so he could beat Humphrey in 1968; worked with Reagan in 1980 to sell weapons to Iran in exchange for holding the hostages to screw Jimmy Carter; and stole the 2000 election from Al Gore by purging 94,000 Black people from the voter rolls in Jeb Bush’s Florida.

Instead of today’s “new GOP,” exemplified by Nazi marches, alleged perverts like Matt Gaetz, and racist rhetoric against immigrants, Barr’s “old GOP” committed their crimes wearing $2000 tailored suits and manipulating the law to their advantage…and still are.

For example, back in 1992, the first time Bill Barr was U.S. Attorney General, iconic New York Times writer William Safire referred to him as “Coverup-General Barr” because of his role in burying evidence of then-President George H.W. Bush’s involvement in Reagan’s scheme to steal the 1980 election through what the media euphemistically called “Iron-Contra.”

On Christmas day of 1992, the New York Times featured a screaming all-caps headline across the top of its front page: Attorney General Bill Barr had covered up evidence of crimes by Reagan and Bush in the Iran-Contra “scandal.” (see the bottom of this article)

Earlier that week of Christmas, 1992, George H.W. Bush was on his way out of office. Bill Clinton had won the White House the month before, and in a few weeks would be sworn in as president.

But Bush Senior’s biggest concern wasn’t that he’d have to leave the White House to retire back to one of his million-dollar mansions in Connecticut, Maine, or Texas: instead, he was worried that he may face time in a federal prison after he left office, a concern nearly identical to what Richard Nixon faced when he decided to resign to avoid prosecution.

Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh was closing in fast on Bush and Reagan, and Bush’s private records, subpoenaed by the independent counsel’s office, were the key to it all.

Walsh had been appointed independent counsel in 1986 to investigate the Iran-Contra activities of the Reagan administration and determine if crimes had been committed.

Was the criminal Iran-Contra conspiracy limited, as Reagan and Bush insisted (and Reagan said on TV), to later years in the Reagan presidency, in response to an obscure hostage-taking in Lebanon?

Or had it started in the 1980 presidential campaign against Jimmy Carter with treasonous collusion with the Iranians, as the then-president of Iran asserted? Who knew what, and when? And what was George H.W. Bush’s role in it all?

In the years since then, the President of Iran in 1980, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, has gone on the record saying that the Reagan campaign reached out to Iran to hold the hostages in exchange for weapons.

“Ayatollah Khomeini and Ronald Reagan,” President Bani-Sadr told the Christian Science Monitor in 2013, “had organized a clandestine negotiation, later known as the ‘October Surprise,’ which prevented the attempts by myself and then-US President Jimmy Carter to free the hostages before the 1980 US presidential election took place. The fact that they were not released tipped the results of the election in favor of Reagan.”

That wouldn’t have been just an impeachable and imprisonable crime: it was every bit as much treason as when Richard Nixon blew up LBJ’s 1968 peace talks with North and South Vietnam to win that November’s election against Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Walsh had zeroed in on documents that were in the possession of Reagan’s former defense secretary, Caspar Weinberger, who all the evidence showed was definitely in on the deal, and President Bush’s diary that could corroborate it.

Elliott Abrams had already been convicted of withholding evidence about it from Congress, and he may have even more information, too, if it could be pried out of him before he went to prison. But Abrams was keeping mum, apparently anticipating a pardon.

This was the moment the “old GOP” was at the height of its power and prestige, and Bush and Barr weren’t about to let it be exposed for the criminal enterprise that the “party of Lincoln” had become.

Weinberger, trying to avoid jail himself, was preparing to testify that Bush knew about the deal to hold the hostages and even participated in it, and Walsh had already, based on information he’d obtained from the investigation into Weinberger, demanded that Bush turn over his diary from the campaign. He was also again hot on the trail of Abrams.

So Bush called in his attorney general, Bill Barr — the respectable scion of the “old GOP” — and asked his advice.

At that point Barr, along with Bush, was already up to his eyeballs in cover-ups of other shady behavior by the Reagan administration.

Safire had started referring to Barr as “Coverup-General” in the midst of another scandal — Bush illegally selling weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein — because the Attorney General was already covering up for Bush, Weinberger, and others in the Reagan administration with a scandal the newspapers called “Iraqgate.”

Ironically, that illegal sale of weapons to Saddam Hussein in the late 1980s and early 1990s was cited by George W. Bush, Bush’s son, as part of his justification for illegally invading Iraq in 2003.

On October 19, 1992, Safire wrote in The New York Times of Barr’s unwillingness to appoint an independent counsel to look into Iraqgate:

“Why does the Coverup-General resist independent investigation? Because he knows where it may lead: to Dick Thornburgh, James Baker, Clayton Yeutter, Brent Scowcroft and himself [the people who organized the sale of WMD to Saddam]. He vainly hopes to be able to head it off, or at least be able to use the threat of firing to negotiate a deal.”

Now, just short of two months later, Bush was asking Barr for advice on how to avoid another very serious charge in the Iran-Contra crimes they committed to defeat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election. How, he wanted to know, could they shut down Walsh’s investigation before Walsh’s lawyers got their hands on Bush’s diary?

In April of 2001, safely distant from the swirl of D.C. politics, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center was compiling oral presidential histories, and interviewed Barr about his time as AG in the Bush White House. They brought up the issue of the Weinberger pardon, which put an end to the Iran-Contra investigation, and Barr’s involvement in it.

Turns out, Barr was right in the middle of it.

“There were some people arguing just for [a pardon for] Weinberger, and I said, ‘No, in for a penny, in for a pound,’” Barr told the interviewer. “I went over and told the President I thought he should not only pardon Caspar Weinberger, but while he was at it, he should pardon about five others.”

Which is exactly what Bush did, on Christmas Eve when most Americans were with family instead of watching the news. The holiday notwithstanding, the result was explosive.

America knew that both Reagan and Bush were up to their necks in the Iran-Contra hostages-for-weapons scandal, and Democrats had been talking about treason, impeachment, or worse.

The independent counsel had already obtained one conviction, three guilty pleas, and two other individuals were lined up for prosecution in the case that lost Jimmy Carter the White House. And Walsh was closing in fast on Bush himself.

The second paragraph of the Times story by David Johnston laid it out:

“Mr. Weinberger was scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 5 on charges that he lied to Congress about his knowledge of the arms sales to Iran and efforts by other countries to help underwrite the Nicaraguan rebels, a case that was expected to focus on Mr. Weinberger’s private notes that contain references to Mr. Bush’s endorsement of the secret shipments to Iran.” (emphasis added)

History shows that when a Republican president is in serious legal trouble, the “old GOP’s” go-to guy was Bill Barr.

For William Safire, Iran-Contra was déjà vu all over again. Four months earlier, referring to Iraqgate (Bush’s criminally selling WMDs to Iraq), Safire opened his article, titled “Justice [Department] Corrupts Justice,” by writing:

“U.S. Attorney General William Barr, in rejecting the House Judiciary Committee’s call for a prosecutor not beholden to the Bush Administration to investigate the crimes of Iraqgate, has taken personal charge of the cover-up.”

Safire accused Barr of not only rigging the cover-up, but of being one of the criminals who could be prosecuted.

“Mr. Barr,” wrote Safire in The New York Times in August of 1992, “...could face prosecution if it turns out that high Bush officials knew about Saddam Hussein’s perversion of our Agriculture export guarantees to finance his war machine.”

He added:

“They [Barr and colleagues] have a keen personal and political interest in seeing to it that the Department of Justice stays in safe, controllable Republican hands.”

Earlier in Bush’s administration, Barr had succeeded in blocking the appointment of an investigator or independent counsel to look into Iraqgate, as Safire repeatedly documented in the Times.

In December, Barr helped Bush block indictments from another independent counsel, Lawrence Walsh, and eliminated any risk that Reagan or George H.W. Bush would be held to account for Iran-Contra.

Walsh, wrote Johnston for the Times on Christmas Eve, “plans to review a campaign diary kept by Mr. Bush.” The diary would be the smoking gun that would nail Bush to the scandal.

“But,” noted the Times, “in a single stroke, Mr. Bush [at Barr’s suggestion] swept away one conviction, three guilty pleas and two pending cases, virtually decapitating what was left of Mr. Walsh’s effort, which began in 1986.”

And Walsh didn’t take it lying down. The Times report noted that:

“Mr. Walsh bitterly condemned the President’s action, charging that ‘the Iran-contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed.’”

Independent Counsel Walsh added that the diary and notes he wanted to enter into a public trial of Weinberger represented:

“{E]vidence of a conspiracy among the highest ranking Reagan Administration officials to lie to Congress and the American public.”

The phrase “highest ranking” officials almost certainly included Reagan, Bush, and Barr himself.

Walsh had been fighting to get those documents ever since 1986, when he was appointed and Reagan still had two years left in office. Bush’s and Weinberger’s refusal to turn them over, Johnston noted in the Times, could have, in Walsh’s words:

“[F]orestalled impeachment proceedings against President Reagan” through a pattern of “deception and obstruction.”

Back in the 1990s, Barr successfully covered up the involvement of two Republican presidents — Reagan and Bush — in two separate and impeachable “high crimes,” one of them almost certainly treason committed just to win a presidential election.

And now we learn he apparently went so far as to cover up Trump’s involvement with Russia (the Mueller Report), and his scheme to fix the 2016 election by shutting up Stormy Daniels, Karen MacDougal, and the Trump Tower doorman.

And Barr’s apparently still at it! Just last month, The New York Times revealed how Barr apparently inserted himself into a Justice Department criminal investigation of a billion-dollar corporation for allegedly corruptly hiding their income offshore to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Republicans claim to be the party of law and order. What a pathetic joke.

[rastronomicals]

2:06 AM EDT March 12, 2025:

Purple Mountains - "All My Happiness Is Gone" From the album Purple Mountains (July 12, 2019)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Berman, David

[cindybermanfics1978]

Cruel Summer | Masterlist

Pairing: Cindy Berman x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Will be presented in each chapter.

Summary: July 19 was the day your brother became possessed and began the unthinkable as you try and figure your feelings out for the older berman sister. 16 years later, october 1994, your past comes back to haunt you as you ask an ex-friend -- ex-girlfriend for help, but that comes with consequences and confrontations.

Fandom: Fear Street

~~

1978

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifthteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

1994 coming October 2024!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen