After watching two days of Lev Parnas’ stunning Ukraine scandal revelations (see “Lev Saves America” https://around-the-block.com/2020/01/16/lev-saves-america/), a good friend asked me, “But do any influential Republicans care about truth and upholding their vows???”
That got me thinking and thinking and thinking…are there any?
Continue reading “Truth, Justice and the GOP Way”
In a stunning interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, Rudy Giuliani (and Donald Trump) associate Lev Parnas revealed chapter and verse how Trump and his gang shook down the president of Ukraine in order to have him publicly announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden, and fired the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine because she was getting in the way of their schemes.
While this was only Part One of a two-part interview (Part Two airs tonight), Parnas not only implicated Trump and Giuliani in the plot, but also Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William Barr, and House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes (R-Ca).
Continue reading “Lev saves America!”
I watched the Democratic presidential debate from Des Moines last night. I’m not going to comment on who won and who lost; that’s the job of the score-keeping pundits and talking heads. But I am going to comment on the process the Democratic National Committee is using to pick a candidate.
Continue reading “Dem Primaries: Debates, “meh;” Process, “AWFUL””
I posted a column last week entitled “It’s not funny anymore.” The sub-head was, “Note to Andy Borowitz: There’s a time and place for satire; this isn’t that time or place.”
I wrote the column right after the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and the escalating conflict with Iran in response to a satirical Borowitz Report about the incident. What I said in part was, “Here’s the problem – what Trump did, how he did it and how he’s following up on it, is not funny. It doesn’t call for satire or jokes…”
Click here to read the entire “It’s not funny anymore.” https://around-the-block.com/2020/01/06/its-not-funny-anymore
With that as a preface, today’s Around the Block continues the sober reporting of the Iran crisis but, based on the inane justifications of their actions by Trump and his gang, there’s a little Twisted news at the end.
Here goes.
Continue reading “While it’s still not funny, maybe we can have a little fun”
The annual Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas is an incredible event. It’s a venue for new ideas, breakthrough products, new and better electronic stuff and more. Many of the products shown at CES end up being indispensable personal and household items, sometimes immediately, sometimes in a few years, but sometimes never.
If the CES 2020 had a subtitle, it would be “Robots ‘R Us.”
Here are some examples:
Continue reading “CES is always a wonder; but do we really need this stuff?”
It’s clear that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s strategy to negotiate with the Senate to establish the rules for the impeachment trial before she releases the House Articles of Impeachment is not going to work. Majority leader Mitch McConnell has the 51 votes to block any pre-trial guidelines, including calling witnesses and introducing documents (AKA “evidence”) that were blocked during the House hearings. For that we need to thank and congratulate the following “seekers of truth, justice and the American way:” Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Cory Gardner and others – but I digress.
Continue reading “Note to Nancy Pelosi: Subpoena Bolton”
Andy Borowitz’s The Borowitz Report – Not the News satirized President Trump’s escalating conflict with Iran today. Here’s the problem – what Trump did, how he did it and how he’s following up on it, is not funny. It doesn’t call for satire or jokes; it requires a serious discussion and a thorough, in-depth review by Congress and by the fact-based media on how this happened and what were the undisclosed “intelligence facts” that led Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to declare that the assassinated general, Qasem Soleimani, represented an “imminent” threat.
Continue reading “It’s Not Funny Anymore!”Author and historian Nancy L. Cohen penned an Op-Ed in the New York Times entitled, “Republican Women Are in Crisis,” in which she opined, “In the past 10 years, they (Republican women) have become an endangered species on the political stage.”
Cohen supports her contention with facts and polling data:
Continue reading “Times Op-Ed: “Republican Women Are in Crisis””Tokyo. Our home away from home.
Rebuilt from the rubble of World War II, Tokyo is one of the greatest cities in the world. It is both ancient and modern…
bustling and peaceful…
Continue reading “Around the Block travels to Japan (Part 2)”
For all you Groucho Marx fans out there, a wonderful piece of New Yorker history from 1929.
Continue reading “Press Agents I Have Known by Groucho Marx”
Around the Block