Around the Block – This and That

Commentary…with a little News with a Twist

This – Pence & the 25th Amendment; That – Evita Trump

THIS: WHAT IF PENCE INVOKED THE 25TH AMENDMENT

A friend emailed me yesterday saying, “I consider myself to be a somewhat rational person, but listening to Pence’s non-stop babbling and “fearless leader” bullshit on Meet the Press this morning literally brought me tears.

My reply:

You watched? My TV automatically changes to any channel that the Three Stooges are on when Pence appears. And when Trump is on, the TV switches to a Marx Brothers’ movie, preferably “The Cocoanuts,” “Monkey Business,” or “At the Circus,” as those three most aptly describe our current situation.

Seriously, the only thing Pence is good for is invoking the 25th Amendment. And he won’t do that.

Report: Covid-19 doesn’t make us ‘stupid!’

Commentary

At least not all of us

The coronavirus pandemic is horrific. But new reports say the virus is only making some people stupid. Here are a few of them.*

*Note: The report did not specify if the people profiled below were stupid prior to Covid-19

Open letter to Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL)

Commentary

re: Trump tweets to ‘LIBERATE’ states where people are protesting virus restrictions.

Yesterday I wrote, “Is it time to man the barricades?” In that post, I partially quoted a story from The New Yorker in which a grandfather, in a love letter to his grandson, lamented the inability of average folks like him to protest our democratic system’s injustices.

“Well, we did that. We called, we wrote letters. Would you have given money to certain people running for office? We did that as well. Would you have marched? For some reason, there were suddenly no marches. Organized a march? Then and now, I did not and do not know how to arrange a march.“

Is it time to man the barricades?

Commentary

Trump tweets to ‘LIBERATE’ states where people are protesting virus restrictions.

The above is the headline from a New York Times article published online five minutes ago.

Here is the article in it’s entirety:

Medicare is serious business. Who knew it could also be funny?

Commentary

One consequence, unintended or not, of the coronavirus pandemic is that the Democratic debate about “Medicare for All,” “Single-payer,” “Universal Healthcare,” or the virtues and/or improprieties of “Obamacare” has been put on hold.

And while the discussion about the good and bad of the entire U.S. medical care system is sadly still front and center, the nuances and minutiae regarding which is the best medical insurance program has been put on the back burner.

The good news is that Medicare is still in place and is still doing an outstanding job for its 44 million beneficiaries.

But, not without the occasional eccentricities, or rather, silly business.

The saga of “Smart,” “Dumb,” “Dumber” and “Dumbest”

Commentary

As federal and state leadership work on plans to combat the coronavirus pandemic, a “hierarchal” trend is clearly developing

The Trump family seder

News with a Twist

Led by *ר ‘דונלד

*Reb Donald

Note: This was sent to me by a friend. I’ve simply embellished it a bit with pictures. I understand that it, like a few others, has been making the social media rounds. So forgive me if you’ve already seen it. I just couldn’t help myself as it is one of the best depictions of a Passover seder I’ve ever read.

Also, forgive me for sending out two “Around the Block” posts in one day. But with Passover almost over, this one couldn’t wait.

“Trump’s role in the death toll.”

Commentary

With Trump’s plan to “reopen” the economy on May 1, despite the warnings of his medical/scientific advisors, have we reached “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda?”

It’s Easter Monday. I hope you all had a good holiday, participating in virtual religious services this weekend, virtual Seders last week and whatever else you did as best you could given this Covid-19 disruption of all our lives.

Well, the weekend is over and this morning I awoke to a flurry of articles and opinion pieces, mostly in the New York Times and The Washington Post (you might better know them as the “fake news” or “Trump-hating LSM {Lame Stream Media}) detailing the lies, the denials, the delays in action, and then, the wrong actions, taken by Trump and his administration before and during this crisis.

We Live in the Worst Country in the World!

Here’s Why

Commentary

I bet that headline got your attention.

And, if the headline didn’t, the picture probably did.

But how can I say the United States of America is the worst country in the world when there are dozens of poor, devastated countries with hungry, sick, oppressed people? When there are countries run by tin-pot dictators whose only devotion is to their own power and to their own self-enrichment?

In fact, according to the Human Development Index (HDI) compiled by the United Nations, the five worst countries to live in are Niger, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Chad and Burundi (otherwise characterized by Donald Trump as “shit-hole” countries). Following the top five (or bottom five, depending on your perspective) are these countries, all with an HDI under 0.55.

“The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”

Commentary

New coronavirus Tsarevich Jared’s first pronouncement hits a chord…the wrong one!

My intention was to make this Around the Block the shortest in history:

Jared Kushner, גענוג!*

(*Genug, Yiddish for “enough,” something I’m sure the orthodox Kushner would understand.)

That was going to be it.

But then, as a public service, I thought I’d provide a little context.