Saturday, August 15, 2020
Good enough for me...and then some!
He'd double the tax rate for nonworking millionaires, eliminate the lower rates on dividends and capital gains for those Americans who annually make a million bucks or more, and boost the top tax rate to almost 40%.
He'll continue to champion America's constantly-marginalized people.
Once in the driver's seat, he'll start a pandemic testing board to scale up and allocate nationwide testing. He also wants to launch a state-and-local-government emergency fund to provide medical supplies, hire more health-care workers, give certain essential workers overtime pay, end cost sharing for COVID-19 testing and treatment, and start up a national public health jobs corps. (Who knows? Maybe these moves could mean 100,000 people doing contract tracing.)
Scientists would be taken seriously. Period.
His housing plan would cut child poverty by 33%, reduce racial opportunity gaps, and would even help with middle-income housing affordability, especially in cities on the two coasts.
And then there's his economic plan:
In it, $400 billion over a four-year period would go to American-made materials and services. At the same time, the plan would earmark $300 billion more for US-based research and development...like electric cars, artificial intelligence, etc.
The plan also boasts a 100-day "supply chain review" to get federal agencies to choose American-made medical goods and supplies.
It'd close up all the loopholes in the government's "Buy American" clauses.
And his economic plan would restore the jobs that the coronavirus pandemic has taken away. In addition, the plan would fire up an additional five million gigs.
He'd build on the Affordable Care Act and on the Violence Against Women Act...and these moves would help level the playing field for America's physically-challenged people.
And earlier this week, he found his runningmate: US Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).
Well, there you are: A ticket whose members have been fighting for years for America's rank-and-file citizens.
On 11-3-2020 (better yet, earlier than that as long as I can vote by mail), I'll be more than happy to cast my ballot for former Vice President Joe Biden and his pick for vice president, Harris.
How about you?
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Lookbook #2- "Rivertown Rock!"
I've been wanting to put up this lookbook for some time...and I would've kicked the idea to the curb if it weren't for the way you responded to the "Really Old School" lookbook and its video counterpart.
In 1992, I wrote a screenplay called "Rivertown Rock!" In it, I wanted to take a look at how music's British Invasion affected teenagers here in America's Midwest in general...and one family in particular. Always wanted to take a look at it through a screenplay of mine.
I wouldn't have started a record collection if the invasion weren't a catalyst...and maybe you began collecting 45s and albums back then, too, because of groups like the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five and the Rolling Stones.
Well, after getting feedback through Stage 32, I decided to revise that script of mine (same for "Really Old School" and two others)...and now, through sources like Network ISA, I'm looking for a producer who'd like to film it. (I've already submitted five screenplays of mine through ISA...and got yet to hear from any producers. That's okay...that's the way the system is.)
Here's the "Rivertown Rock!" logline:
It's Sunday, 2-9-1964...when the Beatles' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show inspires a Sioux City, IA teenager to start her own rock group and show that girls can play the music, too.
I'm Jim Boston...thanks so much for reading this blog!
In 1992, I wrote a screenplay called "Rivertown Rock!" In it, I wanted to take a look at how music's British Invasion affected teenagers here in America's Midwest in general...and one family in particular. Always wanted to take a look at it through a screenplay of mine.
I wouldn't have started a record collection if the invasion weren't a catalyst...and maybe you began collecting 45s and albums back then, too, because of groups like the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five and the Rolling Stones.
Well, after getting feedback through Stage 32, I decided to revise that script of mine (same for "Really Old School" and two others)...and now, through sources like Network ISA, I'm looking for a producer who'd like to film it. (I've already submitted five screenplays of mine through ISA...and got yet to hear from any producers. That's okay...that's the way the system is.)
Here's the "Rivertown Rock!" logline:
It's Sunday, 2-9-1964...when the Beatles' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show inspires a Sioux City, IA teenager to start her own rock group and show that girls can play the music, too.
Sunday, June 7, 2020
The protests MUST continue
Last week, two encounters with coworkers at the plastics factory that employs me made it personally crystal clear why the worldwide protests against the brutality shown by America's police forces MUST continue.
Last Sunday, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert issued a 72-hour curfew in light of the Big O being one of the many American cities holding demonstrations not only against police brutality, but also against the militarization of this country's police forces...and against vigilante brutality. In the curfew, people couldn't go out between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM...unless they had vital jobs. (The company I work at makes, among other things, personal protective equipment...no, not coronavirus masks, but the masks worn by assembly-line employees at dairy factories and by soldiers.)
So...on 6-1-2020, as I got off my second-shift job at 11:00 PM and was heading for my car to drive home, a supervisor from another plant within the same building headed for his own car to go to his own home.
I held the door for him (just trying to be polite, that's all)...and he started talking about the local curfew.
And then he praised this country's chief White House occupant, talking about how "honest" this occupant is...and how this one-time reality-TV show host "says what's on his mind."
Guess what?
Just because the former host of NBC's The Apprentice says what's on his mind doesn't make what's on his mind cool...especially when he declares war on the nation's own citizens by vowing to sic the military on protesters if governors don't do his bidding and "dominate the streets."
That's dictatorial talk...no ifs, no maybes, no buts.
Sorry, folks. The way I see it, we started having a dictator here the afternoon of 1-20-2017.
A couple of nights ago, a fellow second-shift employee of mine at the same plant I work at weighed in on the continuing protests.
She wondered when the demonstrators would get off the streets "so that people can get on with their lives." What's more, she wondered what good the protests are doing.
So I told her.
Not only did I tell this fellow machine operator that the demonstrations have, at long last, gotten the attention of some corporate leaders (one of the leaders took to the electronic billboard at 72nd and Pacific Sts. here in O and loaded a message: "We Need Each Other")...I told her I'm glad the protests continue to take place.
The sign on the east facade of Omaha's Do Space (at 72nd and Dodge Sts., in a building that previously housed a Borders book store) proclaimed: "BLACK LIVES MATTER."
By the way...some of the protests here in Omaha happened at 72nd and Dodge.
Hours before second shift began that day (6-5-2020), NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement admitting that the league was wrong in the way it's been handling player protest ever since San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick went to one knee in 2016.
Eleven days after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis cop named Derek Chauvin (with an assist from four other members of Minneapolis' Supposedly Finest), Goodell finally gave the okay for the NFL's players to speak out and peacefully protest.
What's more, he stated: "We, the National Football League, believe Black lives matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country."
Goodell also admitted that "Without Black players, there would be no National Football League."
Now, Roger...if you and the league's 32 team owners get rid of that kneeling ban, I'll be glad to get back to spending Sunday afternoons and evenings (and any Monday night or Thursday night I can get off during the season) watching NFL action.
And what about US Sen. Willard Mitt Romney (R-UT), the most recent Republican to lose a presidential election, marching with protesters in the nation's capital?
We'll see what happens in the days/weeks/months/years to come...but Romney's and Goodell's actions are a start. So are those taken by corporate bigwigs everywhere.
So if you're still upset because the protests, as this fellow machine operator of mine put it, prevent people from going "on with their lives," let me tell you something:
Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and too damned many others weren't allowed to get on with their own lives.
Vigilantes took it upon themselves to snuff Martin's and Arbery's lives out.
FOR NOTHING.
And I'd like to ask you something:
Do you REALLY believe in freedom for all to live their lives peacefully...to go about their everyday business just as you do?
Do you REALLY believe people have a right to petition this country's government...especially this current garbage fire of a government, one built on hatred and bigotry?
Last Sunday, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert issued a 72-hour curfew in light of the Big O being one of the many American cities holding demonstrations not only against police brutality, but also against the militarization of this country's police forces...and against vigilante brutality. In the curfew, people couldn't go out between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM...unless they had vital jobs. (The company I work at makes, among other things, personal protective equipment...no, not coronavirus masks, but the masks worn by assembly-line employees at dairy factories and by soldiers.)
So...on 6-1-2020, as I got off my second-shift job at 11:00 PM and was heading for my car to drive home, a supervisor from another plant within the same building headed for his own car to go to his own home.
I held the door for him (just trying to be polite, that's all)...and he started talking about the local curfew.
And then he praised this country's chief White House occupant, talking about how "honest" this occupant is...and how this one-time reality-TV show host "says what's on his mind."
Guess what?
Just because the former host of NBC's The Apprentice says what's on his mind doesn't make what's on his mind cool...especially when he declares war on the nation's own citizens by vowing to sic the military on protesters if governors don't do his bidding and "dominate the streets."
That's dictatorial talk...no ifs, no maybes, no buts.
Sorry, folks. The way I see it, we started having a dictator here the afternoon of 1-20-2017.
A couple of nights ago, a fellow second-shift employee of mine at the same plant I work at weighed in on the continuing protests.
She wondered when the demonstrators would get off the streets "so that people can get on with their lives." What's more, she wondered what good the protests are doing.
So I told her.
Not only did I tell this fellow machine operator that the demonstrations have, at long last, gotten the attention of some corporate leaders (one of the leaders took to the electronic billboard at 72nd and Pacific Sts. here in O and loaded a message: "We Need Each Other")...I told her I'm glad the protests continue to take place.
The sign on the east facade of Omaha's Do Space (at 72nd and Dodge Sts., in a building that previously housed a Borders book store) proclaimed: "BLACK LIVES MATTER."
By the way...some of the protests here in Omaha happened at 72nd and Dodge.
Hours before second shift began that day (6-5-2020), NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement admitting that the league was wrong in the way it's been handling player protest ever since San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick went to one knee in 2016.
Eleven days after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis cop named Derek Chauvin (with an assist from four other members of Minneapolis' Supposedly Finest), Goodell finally gave the okay for the NFL's players to speak out and peacefully protest.
Goodell also admitted that "Without Black players, there would be no National Football League."
Now, Roger...if you and the league's 32 team owners get rid of that kneeling ban, I'll be glad to get back to spending Sunday afternoons and evenings (and any Monday night or Thursday night I can get off during the season) watching NFL action.
And what about US Sen. Willard Mitt Romney (R-UT), the most recent Republican to lose a presidential election, marching with protesters in the nation's capital?
We'll see what happens in the days/weeks/months/years to come...but Romney's and Goodell's actions are a start. So are those taken by corporate bigwigs everywhere.
So if you're still upset because the protests, as this fellow machine operator of mine put it, prevent people from going "on with their lives," let me tell you something:
Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and too damned many others weren't allowed to get on with their own lives.
Vigilantes took it upon themselves to snuff Martin's and Arbery's lives out.
FOR NOTHING.
And I'd like to ask you something:
Do you REALLY believe in freedom for all to live their lives peacefully...to go about their everyday business just as you do?
Do you REALLY believe people have a right to petition this country's government...especially this current garbage fire of a government, one built on hatred and bigotry?
Sunday, May 31, 2020
It sure didn't have to be this way
On Wednesday, 5-24-2020, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States became the first country to suffer 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
That's just about like wiping a Billings, MT off the map...or a Davenport, IA...or a Sparks, NV.
Think about that.
And it sure didn't have to be this way.
I read an online article at theintercept.com that stated America's first confirmed case of COVID-19 was made public on 1-20-2020. That same article said that Vietnam saw its first case of the disease three days later.
Vietnam still has yet, as of 5-24-2020, to record its first COVID death.
Yes, yes, yes...Vietnam doesn't have as many people in it as the US; the 2020 edition of "The World Almanac" states that Vietnam has 97.9 million people in it compared to America's 327.2 million people (a 2018 estimate).
Now take a look at the world's most heavily-populated country, China.
Not counting Hong Kong or Macao, China's population is 1.39 billion people. Billion.
If you go right now to worldometers.info, you'll find that the latest figures show that 4,634 Chinese have died from COVID.
Nope. That's not a typo.
As far as I'm concerned, it all comes down to the White House's totally inadequate and completely halfhearted response to the coronavirus pandemic.
And yes...it's an utterly racist response.
Maybe you've heard that deaths from the disease have been disproportionately Black and Brown...the two biggest ethnic groups America's Republicans love to defecate on.
If you're thinking about cutting out on this post, just understand that the same article from theintercept.com yielded a quote from HHS Secretary Alex Azar: "Unfortunately, the American population is...very diverse."
That's Azar trying to justify the world's highest COVID casualty total.
Remember: Azar is part of the first White Supremacist administration in Washington since Woodrow Wilson slept at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Republicans- especially those in the White House- made this whole coronavirus pandemic political. They, not I.
To them, it's all about winning on 11-3-2020. The Con Artist in Chief knows that the fewer people out there casting ballots this year, the better his chances of staying in the Oval Office.
And to The Adolf...oops, I mean The Donald, the pandemic is just another weapon in the GOP arsenal. Just like the call to keep the country's meatpacking facilities running, labeling meat as a vital item.
A significant percentage of immigrants and non-White people works at those plants.
And too many of the employees at those plants have complained about the lack of coronavirus (or any other kind of) protection at too many of those facilities.
Listen, if protein's the issue, cookinglight.com lists 21 other sources of protein.
For instance, you can get protein from peanuts, yogurt, cottage cheese, kidney beans, peanut butter, veggie burgers, lima beans, and all kinds of cheeses from Swiss to mozzarella to Colby Jack.
Okay...is social distancing the issue?
I get that millions of us are chafing to Get Back to Normal...even if it's not going to be all that simple. Millions are chafing to hear the nation's cash registers "KA-CHING!" at the same rate as when 2020 began and we were looking forward to a whole new decade.
Coming back to the article from theintercept.com, epidemiologists Britta L. Jewell and Nicholas P. Jewell said that about 90% of America's COVID-19 deaths could've been prevented if social-distancing policies had been put into effect on 3-2-2020.
At that time, only 11 Americans had died from the biggest global pandemic since the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918-20.
In response to COVID, social spacing finally got placed into effect on 3-15-2020.
Think where we'd be right now if the United States had REAL leadership at the top...instead of the con job that commenced on 1-20-2017.
For now, let's think about saving lives first.
Then we can worry about saving the economy.
That's just about like wiping a Billings, MT off the map...or a Davenport, IA...or a Sparks, NV.
Think about that.
And it sure didn't have to be this way.
I read an online article at theintercept.com that stated America's first confirmed case of COVID-19 was made public on 1-20-2020. That same article said that Vietnam saw its first case of the disease three days later.
Vietnam still has yet, as of 5-24-2020, to record its first COVID death.
Yes, yes, yes...Vietnam doesn't have as many people in it as the US; the 2020 edition of "The World Almanac" states that Vietnam has 97.9 million people in it compared to America's 327.2 million people (a 2018 estimate).
Now take a look at the world's most heavily-populated country, China.
Not counting Hong Kong or Macao, China's population is 1.39 billion people. Billion.
If you go right now to worldometers.info, you'll find that the latest figures show that 4,634 Chinese have died from COVID.
Nope. That's not a typo.
As far as I'm concerned, it all comes down to the White House's totally inadequate and completely halfhearted response to the coronavirus pandemic.
And yes...it's an utterly racist response.
Maybe you've heard that deaths from the disease have been disproportionately Black and Brown...the two biggest ethnic groups America's Republicans love to defecate on.
If you're thinking about cutting out on this post, just understand that the same article from theintercept.com yielded a quote from HHS Secretary Alex Azar: "Unfortunately, the American population is...very diverse."
That's Azar trying to justify the world's highest COVID casualty total.
Remember: Azar is part of the first White Supremacist administration in Washington since Woodrow Wilson slept at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Republicans- especially those in the White House- made this whole coronavirus pandemic political. They, not I.
To them, it's all about winning on 11-3-2020. The Con Artist in Chief knows that the fewer people out there casting ballots this year, the better his chances of staying in the Oval Office.
And to The Adolf...oops, I mean The Donald, the pandemic is just another weapon in the GOP arsenal. Just like the call to keep the country's meatpacking facilities running, labeling meat as a vital item.
A significant percentage of immigrants and non-White people works at those plants.
And too many of the employees at those plants have complained about the lack of coronavirus (or any other kind of) protection at too many of those facilities.
Listen, if protein's the issue, cookinglight.com lists 21 other sources of protein.
Okay...is social distancing the issue?
I get that millions of us are chafing to Get Back to Normal...even if it's not going to be all that simple. Millions are chafing to hear the nation's cash registers "KA-CHING!" at the same rate as when 2020 began and we were looking forward to a whole new decade.
Coming back to the article from theintercept.com, epidemiologists Britta L. Jewell and Nicholas P. Jewell said that about 90% of America's COVID-19 deaths could've been prevented if social-distancing policies had been put into effect on 3-2-2020.
At that time, only 11 Americans had died from the biggest global pandemic since the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918-20.
In response to COVID, social spacing finally got placed into effect on 3-15-2020.
Think where we'd be right now if the United States had REAL leadership at the top...instead of the con job that commenced on 1-20-2017.
For now, let's think about saving lives first.
Then we can worry about saving the economy.
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Monday, April 27, 2020
Lookbook #1- "Really Old School"
Things have gotten to the point in the movie-and-TV industry where writers trying to break in (and those who've already established themselves) need to put together a collection of photos serving as an expression of the writers' vision of how a movie or TV series is supposed to look. (Directors have been using this tool for quite some time.)
This collection of pictures is called a lookbook.
Well, anyway...here's my very first attempt at a lookbook, and it's connected to my very first attempt at a screenplay since 1994, "Really Old School."
This collection of pictures is called a lookbook.
Well, anyway...here's my very first attempt at a lookbook, and it's connected to my very first attempt at a screenplay since 1994, "Really Old School."
The screenplay's logline:
Inspired by a piece of 1910s sheet music, a modern-day Omaha, NE teenager wants to honor and emulate the tune's author: Her newly-deceased great-grandmother, a ragtime-era composer-musician-bandleader-arranger.
Hope you like this lookbook...and wishing you all the very best!
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