In the early Forties, Jimmie Tarantino was a small-time Hollywood hustler, a freelance writer for a tiny boxing magazine, Knockout. Jimmie had big ideas. He managed to ingratiate himself with the still up-and-coming Frank Sinatra, becoming a member of Sinatra’s group of hangers-on, known informally as “The Varsity,” a precursor to the infamous Rat Pack of the Fifties and Sixties.
Proximity to Sinatra gave Jimmie access to lots of Hollywood dirt. He pitched the idea of a gossip magazine to Sinatra and mobster Mickey Cohen, both of whom invested in the magazine. Thus “Hollywood Nite-Life” was born.
Soon, Jimmie’s greed got the better of him and he had to leave Hollywood for San Francisco, where he hooked up with gambler and crime boss Bones Remmer and continued with his nefarious schemes, shakedowns, and mischief.
This is Rachael Rivera. I can’t remember if we shot this picture before or after we did the “The Guitar Lesson” shoot. A very sweet young woman. I earlier reported that she was awaiting a heart operation. It turns out she has a new number and I was texting with someone named Cathy who has had Rachael’s old number for three weeks. After Cathy cleared up the mystery, I contacted Rachael through IG.
Rachael, I’m happy to say, is in Phoenix now, living with her fiancé, in perfect health.
Last week, Donald Trump ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to dump water from two critical reservoirs in South California into the ocean. He then posted a message that bragged of his “Victory” in freeing the water. He also claimed the move would have stopped the Los Angeles fires. Republican farmers in the Central Valley are going to need that water come fall. Let them drink dust.
America’s Dollar Store Nazis have launched their blitzkrieg against the federal government and it’s crazier than anything we imagined. Tariffs on Canada. Elon Musk personally and illegally seizing control of the OMB’s payment database. Firings of FBI bureau chiefs and a mass purge of agents. ICE raids everywhere and talk of sending innocent migrants to Guantanamo. There’s been much criticism of Democratic leaders for not doing enough, but to be fair, there’s no playbook for this. Democracy’s defenders are backpedaling as fast as possible trying to find our Dunkerque.
All the lessons we learned over the past seventy years or so about civic norms, responsible protest and nonviolence are now a tire around our necks. This isn’t a political conflict to be resolved by elections and laws. What remains of our legal system is about to harnessed for Fascist oppression. There are no better angels. There are no adults in the room. No one is coming to help. There is an enemy at the center of the republic. No peace is possible until that enemy is defeated. None of us will be safe, no matter where we hide, until this menace is destroyed.
