James Earl Jones, stutterer, U of M grad, voice of God, activist, and actor extraordinaire died on Monday
Jones, whose powerful acting resonated onstage and onscreen, died on Monday at 93. He gave life to characters like Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and Mufasa in “The Lion King,” and went on to collect Tonys, Golden Globes, Emmys and an honorary Oscar.
Jones’ voice as Darth Vader still resonates with me nearly 50 years later. Jones added his bad guy voice to Mufasa, the brother who connived to be king of the pack. Jones had so many great roles, but the role I loved the most was as Terence Mann, the old sports reporter, in Field of Dreams. His partnership with Kevin Costner made this an iconic movie that lives on today, as the MLB plays a game in the same Iowa cornfield that the movie was about.
Jones body of work was so great, that we will be hearing his voice for many years to come.
Matthew Stafford
Prior to Sunday night, I aways believed Isaiah Thomas was the toughest athlete I had ever seen when it comes to overcoming pain and continuing to play over it. In my mind Isaiah was in another world when it came to playing through pain.
However, after watching Stafford on Sunday night, I am convinced Stafford is as tough as Isaish when it comes to playing through pain. On Sunday, it seemed like Stafford was always getting knocked down and had someone falling on top of him. He survived a roughing the passer call. He survived getting his ankle rolled over by a 300-pound lineman. Yet, he kept getting up and slinging passes all over the field. He had at least two no-look passes where he looked right and through across his body to the left, hitting Cooper Cupp in stride while he was cutting across the middle of the field. His best play was reaching down and snagging a bad snap with his left hand on a ball that was only six inches above the ground without fumbling it and then completing a pass like nothing happened.
Every person I talked to following the game could not say enough about how well Stafford played Sunday night. Stafford must feel that Ford Field is his kryptonite. A place he has played his butt off and sacrificed his body while usually coming up short in big games, especially the last two games in which he lost one game by a point and the other game in overtime.
Netanyahu
41,000 deaths and growing. Netanyahu has no regard for human life and human suffering. He is a warmonger. As I predicted the first week after the Israeli offensive started, Netanyahu would test the limits of the U.S. support because he was not going to stop his aggression until Hamas was wiped off the face of the earth.
It is time for the U.S. to stop supporting this warmonger and his ultra-right cabinet.
Quote of the Day, from Heather Cox Richardson on Saturday
Excerpts from her Saturday’s Letters from an American.
Yesterday, Trump ranted at the press, furious that the American legal system had resulted in two jury decisions that he had defamed and sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll. He was so angry that, with his lawyers standing awkwardly behind him, he told reporters: “I’m disappointed in my legal talent, I’ll be honest with you.”
Today, Trump held a rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, a small city in the center of the state, where he addressed about 7,000 people. A number of us who have been watching him closely have been saying for a while that when voters actually saw him in this campaign, they would be shocked at how he has deteriorated, and that seems to be true: his meandering and self-indulgent speeches have had attendees leaving early, some of them bewildered. In today’s speech, Trump slurred a number of words, referring to Elon Musk as “Leon,” for example, and forgetting the name of North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, who was on his short list for a vice presidential pick.
But today’s speech struck me as different from his past performances, distinguished for what sounded like desperation. Trump has always invented his stories from whole cloth, but there used to be some way to tie them to reality. Today that seemed to be gone. He was in a fantasy world, and his rhetoric was apocalyptic. It was also bloody in ways that raise huge red flags for scholars of fascism.
Trump told the audience that when he took office in 2017, military officers told him the U.S. had given all the military’s ammunition away to allies. Then he went on a rant against our allies, saying that they’re only our allies when they need something and that they would never come to our aid if we needed them. This echoes the talking points put out by Russian operatives and flies in the face of the fact that the one time the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invoked the mutual defense pact in that agreement was after the attacks of September 11, 2001, in support of the U.S.
He embraced Project 2025’s promise to eliminate the Department of Education and send education back to the states so that right-wing figures like Wisconsin’s Senator Ron Johnson can run it. He reiterated the MAGA claim that mothers are executing their babies after birth—this is completely bonkers—and again echoed Russian talking points when he said these executions are happening—they are not—but “nobody talks about it.” He went on: “We did a great thing when we got Roe v. Wade out of the federal government.”
He reiterated the complete fantasy that schools are performing gender-affirming surgery on children. “Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day at school, and your son comes back with a brutal operation. Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?” Trump’s suggestion that schools are performing surgery on students is bananas. This is simply not a thing that happens.
And then he went full-blown apocalyptic, attacking immigrants and claiming that crime, which in reality has dropped dramatically since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office after a spike during his own term, has made the U.S. uninhabitable. He said that “If I don’t win Colorado, it will be taken over by migrants and the governor will be sent fleeing.” “Migrants and crime are here in our country at levels never thought possible before…. You’re not safe even sitting here, to be honest with you. I’m the only one that’s going to get it done. Everybody is saying that.” He urged people to protest “because you’re being overrun by criminals.”
He assured attendees that “If you think you have a nice house, have a migrant enjoy your house, because a migrant will take it over. A migrant will take it over. It will be Venezuela on steroids.” He reiterated his plan to get rid of migrants. “And you know,” he said, “getting them out will be a bloody story.”
Presidential Debate
I am trying to get this blog finished prior to 9 PM so I can watch the debate tonight. Like the last debate, this may be a game changer. I am looking forward to it.
Copper Harbor
Leah and I will be spending the next three days in Copper Harbor on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Internet a phone coverage will be spotty at best. This will be my only blog for this week. Next week I will be out of town on Monday so my next blog will be Tuesday September 17.
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Second Quote of the Day and Onion of the Day: “She was feeling left out” a parent of an elementary school student justifying why her daughter told her teacher during recess she wasn’t feeling good and needed to see the school nurse. Instead, the student went back to her classroom and ransacked the teacher’s desk looking for candy. So many things are wrong with this explanation.
Orchid of the Day: The Detroit Tigers who have the best record in the American League since July 1. Going into tonight, the Tigers are only three games back for the final playoff spot in the American League. As of this writing, the Tigers are winning tonight against the Rockies 11-0.
Onion of the Day: See above story under Second Quote of the Day
Question of the Day: Is there anyone who had a better talking voice than James Earl Jones?
Video of the Day: James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams
Field of Dreams (5/9) Movie CLIP – People Will Come (1989) HD (youtube.com)