Taking a break from Trump, DeSantis and the MAGA crowd…

Commentary

…Around the Block talks musical theater…with a slight Trump detour I couldn’t resist writing about.

How about a change of pace from the usual Around the Block topics? Frankly, I’m Trump’d, DeSantis’d, CPAC’d and MAGA’d out. And based on the number of views of my last post, “I’m a MAGA, she’s a MAGA, he’s a MAGA three!” (https://around-the-block.com/2023/03/21/im-a-maga-shes-a-maga-hes-a-maga-three/), it looks you might be as well.

My intention today was to write about the budding “bromance” between Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian president, Vladimir Putin – I mean did you see the photos of an adoring Xi batting his eyes at Putin in their get-together in Moscow?

I actually wondered if after they met they were going to retreat to the Stalin Memorial Bedroom to consummate their “arrangement.” And then I thought about it. Boring!

So, what to do? What to post?

A little background.

But before that background – even when I try a change of pace, I can’t help myself.

Trump Posts Photo Of Him Holding A Baseball Bat Next To Pic Of Bragg

By the way, no legal scholar I, but others more in tune with the law have suggested that threatening a prosecutor is a crime.

Coincident with the photo, Trump also posted a vicious, all-caps screed directed at NY DA Alvin Bragg on his Truth Social site:

“WHY WON’T BRAGG DROP THIS CASE? EVERYBODY SAYS THERE IS NO CRIME HERE. I DID NOTHING WRONG! IT WAS ALL MADE UP BY A CONVICTED NUT JOB WITH ZERO CREDIBILITY, WHO HAS BEEN DISPUTED BY HIGHLY RESPECTED PROFESSIONALS AT EVERY TURN. BRAGG REFUSES TO STOP DESPITE OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY.”

“HE IS A SOROS BACKED ANIMAL WHO JUST DOESN’T CARE ABOUT RIGHT OR WRONG NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HURT. THIS IS NO LEGAL SYSTEM, THIS IS THE GESTAPO, THIS IS RUSSIA AND CHINA, BUT WORSE. DISGRACEFUL!”

“EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M 100% INNOCENT, INCLUDING BRAGG, BUT HE DOESN’T CARE. HE IS JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!”

Is there a judge in NY who can say, “Gag order?”

But, I digress – back to what I really wanted to write about.

As some readers are aware, Around the Block is not my only writing endeavor. Among the projects I’ve been working on are two that focus on one of my passions: musical theater. While it’s too early to say how either of these two projects will turn out, or whether either will ever get beyond my imagination, I began thinking about what it was that led me down this musical/theatrical path. And then I remembered a piece a wrote a while back for my community’s monthly magazine. I thought I’d share that story with you. I hope you enjoy it.

Love of Show Music

I can’t pinpoint when I first fell in love with Broadway musicals. It certainly wasn’t because my parents took me to see shows; they never did. Perhaps it was my mother’s many 78 RPM record albums of Rogers & Hammerstein shows that got me started. My favorite Rogers & Hammerstein album then, and still today, was the original Broadway cast album of “Carousel” starring John Raitt and Jan Clayton. To this day, whenever I hear the “Carousel Waltz,” the show’s version of an overture, I instinctively get up to put on the next record; remember, those 78’s contained only one song per side. And, in case you forgot, the next song was “You’re a Queer One, Julie Jordan,” followed by one of the greatest Rogers & Hammerstein songs, the heartfelt, “If I Loved You.”

Many, many years later I attended a revival performance of “Carousel” at the NY State Theater in Lincoln Center. I was in the last row of the highest balcony (I was in college at the time and couldn’t afford better seats). It was a terrible seat but for one saving grace – watching the last scene in which Billy Bigelow, the troubled protagonist, amazingly recreated by the original Billy Bigelow, John Raitt, over 20 years after his original Broadway performance, comes down from heaven bringing a heavenly star to the daughter he had never known, Louise. When Louise refuses to take the star, Billy slaps her but to Louise, the slap feels like a kiss. With that, the great inspirational song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is sung by the entire ensemble. As the music swelled, the curtain came down to a completely silent the theater…except for the hundreds of sniffles from the audience, amplified up to my seat in that last row of the highest balcony by the vast theater’s great acoustics.

I’ll never forget that moment and would never question the emotional power of great musical theater.

I’ve always wondered where this Broadway musical fascination began. Perhaps it was influenced by my mother’s younger brother, my Uncle Aaron. Uncle Aaron taught me the lyrics to songs from many Broadway and Hollywood musicals. I remember “The Donkey’s Serenade” by Rudolf Friml from the film “The Firefly,” was one of his favorites. Uncle Aaron was probably the reason I became fascinated with putting parody lyrics to famous tunes. My favorite of his parody songs, way before it was sung by Bart Simpson on the Simpsons TV show, was this send-up of the famous Carmen tune:  

Toreador-ā/Don’t spit floor-ā/Use the spitor-ā/That’s what it’s for-ā.

Or, when he taught me this little ditty he sang to his campers when he was a counselor at a day camp in Coney Island:

T-I-P does not spell soap/Put it in an envelope/Send it with you little dope/T-I-P does not spell soap.

By the time I got to high school, I had joined the Macy’s Broadway Theater Club with my best friend, Howard Rubin. The club offered students the opportunity to attend Broadway shows, both musicals and dramas, for as little as fifty cents. Imagine, on one weekend Howard and I saw Harold Pinter’s “The Caretaker” (a little too heavy for two 15-year olds) and on another, the musical “Do-Re-Me” starring the incomparable Phil Silvers. With music by Jule Styne, but overshadowed by Styne’s blockbuster from the year before, “Gypsy,” “Do-Re-Me” did have one big hit, “Make Someone Happy.”

I guess that day, I was that someone. And, when it comes to theater, that happiness has endured to this day.

I’m a MAGA, she’s a MAGA, he’s a MAGA three!

Commentary

GOP pol’s defense of the “indictment and arrest” of Trump is stunning, particularly given that there hasn’t been an indictment, let alone an arrest.

As recently reported by the major media, including the one and only Around the Block, based on his post on his own social media site, Truth Social, ex-president Donald Trump is to be indicted today by the Manhattan DA’s office. As I wrote in a post the other day:

“Donald Trump claimed today that he was going to be ‘arrested’ by New York authorities. The potential indictment, not confirmed by the office of the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, is likely to stem from an alleged 2016 hush money payment to porn star, Stormy Daniels. Trump announced the arrest, which he claims will occur on Tuesday, in a communication on this social media platform, Truth Social.“

Well, today is Tuesday and guess what? So far we’re looking at a ‘nothing-burger’ as there is no indication that the DA’s office will issue an indictment today. In fact, at this point we can’t be sure that there will even be an indictment. I want to say “clearly” Trump’s post was a figment of his warped imagination but Trump’s imagination and “clearly” are contradictions in terms. In fact (fact is another word that is difficult to use when talking Trump), his post most likely was an attempt to whip up support among his MAGA minions, particularly when he closed the message with echos of a January 6th Trump trope, “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK.” (all caps courtesy of Trump).

Yet, despite the fact that there has been no indictment and, if there is going to be one, no one outside the Grand Jury knows what it might contain, the MAGA-world hair is literally on fire in outrage over the treatment of their leader. And nowhere is that outrage more fiery than among elected Republican officials.

A sampling:

  • “You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office,” Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), James Comer (Ky.) and Bryan Steil (Wis.), who chair the Judiciary, Oversight and House Administration committees, respectively, wrote in a letter to Bragg dated Monday.
  • Jordan, never one to share the stage with his fellow MAGA-ites, followed up with”God Bless President Trump. Real America knows this is all a sham.”
  • Despite his recent strong comments slamming Trump over Jan. 6th, former Vice President Mike Pence, who’s nearing a decision on a 2024 presidential bid, said the potential indictment “reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax. This is what the Manhattan DA says is their top priority?”
  • Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the third-ranking Republican in the House, called Trump’s possible arrest “unAmerican” and said Democrats have reached “a dangerous new low.”
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., downplayed the Manhattan district attorney’s case and said he thinks prosecutors are “afraid” of Trump. “The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America today,” Graham said. If I were President Trump I’d take this all the way to the damn Supreme Court.”*

*(Yikes, we know how that will turn out!)

  • Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona tweeted, “If they can come for Trump, they will come for you. This type of stuff only occurs in third world authoritarian nations.”
  • “Virtually every campaign finance violation involves either 1) spending other people’s money illegally or 2) taking money into your campaign that you shouldn’t. Trump did neither,” tweeted Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. “He used his own money to resolve a private dispute, irrespective of any campaign.”
  • Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, another Trump ally who has advanced his baseless theories of a stolen 2020 election, criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he “will prosecute” Trump while “violent criminals” roam New York City.
  • And finally, the irrepressible Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG) characterized the allegations against Trump as “fake” and “outdated.” She tweeted, “Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this,” writing in another tweet, “we don’t need to protest,” adding: “These idiots are sealing their own fate in 2024 because the silent majority has two feelings right now about the current regime.”

Of course the grand prize in fiery outrage must go to the Congressional leader of the MAGA GOP, House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who, as Around the Block reported previously, tweeted,

As I commented, [McCarthy is] “inserting himself in a legal procedure that has nothing to do with him, calling a duly-elected local DA an abuser of power in a Grand Jury investigation into which McCarthy has no insight.”

Writing, “I doubt he (McCarthy), or any or the other Trump acolytes in Congress recognize the irony of McCarthy’s statement about “subvert[ing] our democracy.” This is doubly ironic given McCarthy’s recent empowerment of the House Sub-Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government! If Congress going after a local, elected DA investigating a potential crime isn’t weaponizing the federal government, I either don’t understand the term “weaponizing” or am confused about what the federal government is.

But I guess, like so many of his MAGA ilk, McCarthy doesn’t know the meaning of irony.

So in the public interest, and for the two MAGA subscribers to Around the Block (or is it one?), in the words of John Oliver, “And now this…”

Trump Claims His Arrest Is Imminent and Calls for Protests, Echoing Jan. 6

Commentary

Trump precedes his post about his imminent “arrest” with an ugly, dystopian screed about America.

I’m sure that by the time you read this, you’ll already be aware of the BIG NEWS on this normally sleepy news Saturday:

Donald Trump claimed today that he was going to be “arrested” by New York authorities. The potential indictment, not confirmed by the office of the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, is likely to stem from an alleged 2016 hush money payment to porn star, Stormy Daniels. Trump announced the arrest, which he claims will occur on Tuesday, in a communication on this social media platform, Truth Social. In the post Trump, as usual,played the victim being persecuted by the “CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE” who is funded by none other than “GEORGE SOROS,” in an “ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER [unnamed] PROSECUTORS) FAIRY TALE.”

While all that is standard Trump folderol, the part of the post that was far more ominous, as how he concluded his post, encouraging his supporters: “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”

Most of the news coverage displayed the above post which begins, “Page 2” without showing “Page 1.” Not good enough for Around the Block, I found “Page 1;” it is truly and typically Trump, typically dystopian and typically hysterical (and not in the humorous definition of the word).

If all this is not enough, guess who chimed in. The spineless, craven, impotent, ineffectual, emasculated “Speaker” of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

In a tweet that had to be co-authored by the crazed McCarthy puppeteer, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) and the unhinged, jacket-less, chairman of the new “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Federal Government,” Jim Jordan (R-Oh), McCarthy tweeted,

Think about McCarthy’s tweet. Here is a man who is only Speaker and, therefore, third in line to the presidency, because he kowtowed to the MAGA-wing of his caucus, kowtowing again by inserting himself in a legal procedure that has nothing to do with him, calling a duly-elected local DA an abuser of power in a Grand Jury investigation into which McCarthy has no insight. I doubt he, or any or the other Trump acolytes in Congress recognize the irony of McCarthy’s statement about “subvert[ing] our democracy.”

And then, of course, where would any story about this horror show be complete without a comment from the aforementioned MTG, who turned a potential Trump indictment into a victory, by tweeting, “If the Manhattan DA indicts President Trump, he will ultimately win even bigger than he is already going to win,” going on to say that “President Trump did nothing wrong…” as if she has some inside information that no one else has, including the Grand Jury, if he is indicted.

Let me finish with comments from someone who, while might be left-leaning, is, by virtue of his profession, objective – presidential historian, Michael Beschloss.

“This tweet that Kevin McCarthy put out is disgraceful, and I don’t use that word often to describe Speakers of the House. He’s interfering with the process of the rule of law. This is a duly elected DA in New York; we don’t even know what’s going to happen yet or what the Grand Jury is going to do. The Speaker of the house has absolutely no business interfering with this process siding with one side, the Donald Trump side, while also saying that he’s going to investigate the use of federal funds. It’s not his business to get involved in the legal process.

“And, not insignificantly, it also raises the question regarding Donald Trump’s calling on people to protest. You have an ex-president calling for a protest that we now know can turn into violence as it did on the 6th of January 2021. But at least as horrible as that day was, we had a Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, where we could be sure that she would do her best to try to protect the capital against violent attack. After this statement by Kevin McCarthy we have no such reassurance.”

I don’t know about you but on this Saturday in March, the NCAA’s “March Madness” has been “Trumped” (and “McCarthyed” and “Greened”)! In fact, on this Saturday in March we’ve entered into the new world of “March Malevolence.”

Around the Block’s “The CPAC Report”

Commentary

“Oh, what a circus, oh what a show!”

“As many of you know, the annual CPAC conference was held last week at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside the “beltway swamp” (CPAC’s location characterization). CPAC, which stands for “Contemptible People Acting Cuckoo” claims to be the third-ranked Political and Press event of the year, behind the State of the Union (aka, Secessionist Marjorie Taylor Greene and her Peanut Gallery show) and the (not-so-funny) White House Correspondents’ Dinner. While attendance at this year’s edition of CPAC was smaller than in past gatherings, there were still quite a few wretched, hateful and despicable (thanks, Hillary – how did that work out for you???) cuckoos in attendance.

Truth be told – which of course Around The Block is dedicated to, i.e., truth telling – this year’s edition of CPAC was particularly notable in that many potential Trump 2024 challengers – I’m looking at you DeSantis, Pompeo and Pence (Pence, really?) didn’t even show up, fearful of being overshadowed by the disgraced, soon-to-be indicted ex-“president.” Nikki Haley, the only other currently declared GOP presidential candidate, did make an appearance to a woefully small audience, only to be heckled by Trump supporters in that audience chanting, “WE LOVE TRUMP!” CPAC was so awful this year that, as reported in the New York Post, my go-to source for CPAC news, in the conference straw poll of likely Republican nominees for the 2024 presidential election, “Trump was the preferred candidate of 62% of attendees, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second place with 20% percent support, followed by Michigan businessman Perry Johnson, who ran a Super Bowl ad for his long-shot campaign for the GOP nomination in third place with 5% of the vote, the aforementioned Ms. Haley with 3% and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy(?) with 1%.

I guess with two candidates of sub-continent Indian heritage, I should be careful not to criticize the GOP for its lack of diversity.

The Post went on to report that , “Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, along with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, each had 1% of the vote to round out the tally board.”

I don’t know about you, but calling this group a ‘motley crew’ gives ‘motley crew’ a bad name.

But wait, according to The New York Post, it gets worse. Among a field of 28 potential vice-presidential candidates, Keri Lake won with 20 percent of the vote, beating former Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (14%) and the woebegone Ms. Haley, with 10 percent.

You might remember Lake, the former local TV reporter from Phoenix who thinks she’s governor of Arizona. Talk about lunacy, CPAC gave the 2024 nod to a Trump/Lake ticket, neither of whom will admit that they lost free and fair elections in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

But enough about the lunacy of the CPAC crowd, let’s move on to the leader of the (lunacy) pack, Donald Trump.

The New York Times headline/sub-head summed it up:

Trump, Vowing ‘Retribution,’ Foretells a Second Term of Spite

In a speech before his supporters, the former president charged forward in an uncharted direction, talking openly about leveraging the power of the presidency for political reprisals.

From the Times:

“Donald J. Trump has for decades trafficked in the language of vengeance, from his days as a New York developer vowing “an eye for an eye” in the real estate business to ticking through an enemies ledger in 2022 as he sought to oust every last Republican who voted for his impeachment. ‘Four down and six to go,’ he cheered in a statement as one went down to defeat.

“But even though payback has long been part of his public persona, Mr. Trump’s speech on Saturday at CPAC was striking for how explicitly he signaled that any return trip to the White House would amount to a term of spite.

“’In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’ Mr. Trump told the crowd in National Harbor, Md. ‘Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.’

“He repeated the phrase for emphasis: ‘I am your retribution.’”

Since he repeated the phrase twice for emphasis, let me not only repeat it, but bold it for its horrific symbolism: “I am your retribution.”

As eminent Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe said in a retweet of a Bill Kristol post, “These parallels should chill us to the bone.” 

As you see below, the parallels Tribe referenced was Joseph Goebbels comment:
“Eines Tages kommt die Stunde der Vergeltung!” (“One day the hour of retribution will come.”) — Joseph Goebbels, June 5, 1943

And if all this isn’t enough, here’s the first Twitter comment to Tribe’s post:

“Mr Tribe, with all due respect, the vast majority of Americans don’t know how the Nazis came to power, let alone who Goebbels was.”

I don’t know who Green&Serene @DarmokAndJalad are, but I fear that they are correct in their assessment about the “vast majority of Americans.” While lack of historical knowledge of so many Americans is lamentable, perhaps even worse is that a great number of those American people, the Trump “patriots,” the white supremacist/neo-Nazi cohort, the “good people on both sides” crowd that Trump called out after Charlottesville, know exactly what Trump was saying. As, I’m sure Trump did himself. Do you really think he pulled the word “retribution” out of thin air? Can you say “dog whistle?”

Talking about Trump “patriots,” there’s one more hard to swallow bit of Trump theatrics that came out of CPAC . It was when Trump took his support for those who stormed the Capitol to another level, collaborating on a new performance piece integrating the National Anthem with the Pledge of Allegiance performed by Trump and a group of inmates imprisoned in Washington on charges related to the Jan. 6 attack.

Trump and the prisoners — dubbed the “J6 Prison Choir” — released “Justice for All” a roughly 2 1/2-minute track that features the former president reciting the Pledge of Allegiance cut with the inmates singing the national anthem.

Here it is for you to listen to or not. In any event, remember the man who is featured with the insurrectionists in this piece is the same man who fomented the insurrection, the same man who might be indicted in some jurisdiction for any number of crimes and the same man who is now the overwhelming choice of the CPAC cuckoos to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024.

I’ve run out of words!

Re: Herr DeSantis and Around the Block

Clarification/Commentary

In my earlier post, “Herr DeSantis and his Reichstag, (er Legislature) and ministraten, (ur toadies), are at it again!” https://around-the-block.com/2023/03/07/herr-desantis-and-his-reichstag-er-legislature-and-ministraten-ur-toadies-are-at-it-again/, I included the following paragraph:

Since arguing that reader comments would not qualify as “fair-market value” in a court of law (but what a great “Law and Order” episode it would make), I’m asking you, dear readers that if you would like to join in my crusade against the DeSantis gestapo (or KGB – depending on who your favorite dictator is) you might consider depositing any $ sum in my Around the Block trust account: Account number 1234567890/Routing number 987654321. Unlike in Brodeur’s bill, where the fines will go to either the Legislative Lobbyist Registration Trust Fund, the Executive Branch Lobby Registration Fund or, both, your contributions to the Around the Block Trust will allow for not only the continued great opinions you relish, but to my potential incarceration and bigger pulpit!

Please be advised, the request for monetary support for Around the Block is a joke, a joke to make a point; the account and routing numbers are obviously made up; and, as one of my commenters wrote, “who pays bloggers?”

Perhaps I should have used News with a Twist as one of my subheads.

But to continue the joke, for now it’s best to wait and see how this bill progresses through the Florida legislature and what will happen when/if DeSantis signs it. If, in fact, it does become law, I will determine, with your assistance, the best way for me to become a blogging scofflaw. Remember though, if you donate, even 5¢, the minimum I will accept, I will be compelled to identify you to DeSantis’s brown shirts.

In the meantime, while all this sorts out, all I ask is for you to keep reading, keep commenting and keep telling your friends about Around the Block.

Herr DeSantis and his Reichstag, (er Legislature) and ministraten, (ur toadies), are at it again!

Commentary

Gauliter Jason Brodeur, aka Florida State Senator Jason Brodeur, just introduced the “Information Dissemination/ Blogger Registration Bill.” And I don’t know whether laugh, cry or cheer(!?)

As reported by NBC News:

A Republican state senator in Florida has introduced a bill that, if passed, would require bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, his Cabinet or state legislators to register with the state.

Sen. Jason Brodeur’s bill, titled “Information Dissemination,” would also require bloggers to disclose who’s paying them for their posts about certain elected officials and how much.

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register” with the appropriate office within five days of the post, the legislation says.

It defines “elected state officer” as “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature.”

Failing to register would result in a fine of $25 a day, and the penalty would be capped at $2,500 per posting, NBC affiliate WFLA of Tampa reported.

The bill says the bloggers’ reports to the state “must include” the “individual or entity that compensated the blogger for the blog post, and “the amount of compensation received from the individual or entity.”

The bill defines a blog as “a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content,” but it says the “term does not include the website of a newspaper or other similar publication.”

DeSantis’s office said Friday it was reviewing the bill. “As usual, the governor will consider the merits of a bill in final form if and when it passes the legislature,” said his press secretary, Bryan Griffin.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Herr DeSantis will not consider the bill overreaching. But some other GOP pols think differently

This bill is, in the words of that notable Progressive, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, “insane.”

“The idea that bloggers criticizing a politician should register with the government is insane,” Gingrich wrote on Twitter Sunday. “It is an embarrassment that it is a Republican state legislator in Florida who introduced a bill to that effect. He should withdraw it immediately.”

I guess if I agree with Newt Gingrich on anything, I should not just laugh, I should laugh hysterically.

So, with laughing out of the way, why would I be crying? Well, for starters, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has slammed the proposal as “un-American to its core.” 

As the ACLU posted: “This is a clear violation of the First Amendment because it strongly discourages bloggers from speaking on politics – one of the most critical types of speech for maintaining a democracy.”

Yes, not only is this bill is clearly unconstitutional (or, maybe not so clear given the current makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court), it imposes incomprehensibly complicated rules and regulations on private citizens by a “big government.” Am I missing something? Aren’t Republicans staunchly against government interference of citizen’s rights? Isn’t that why they won’t support gun regulation which allows each of us, as enshrined in the Second Amendment, “…to to keep and bear Arms…[as active participants in]…A well regulated Militia?” (Sorry, all you “originalists” out there, but I had to refine the Amendment’s words in order to clarify and bring up to modern standards one of most poorly written sentences in the history of, well, sentences. But, I digress).

So, why would I be cheering?

Because before I went beyond the headlines and read the Bill’s details, I had hoped that if I didn’t register and continued publishing commentary about Florida state officials, I’d be fined, wouldn’t pay the fine, and be hauled off to a DeSantis gulag (Yes, I know I’m mixing my dictators here but you get the point.) awaiting trial on an infinitely bigger platform than this lowly blog allows.

In fact, I was so thrilled that I started searching my Around the Block archives to gather all my posts about DeSantis and his un-merry crew in the hopes that the law would be imposed retroactively. (35 posts since 2020.)

But then I read a clause in the bill which I had overlooked. And I was back to crying.

To qualify for and break the law, the blogger must be paid!

286.31 Blogger registration and reporting.

  • As used in this section,:
    • “Blog” means a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content. The term does not include the website of a newspaper or other similar publication. (Check!)
    • “Blogger” means any person as defined in s. 1.01(3) that submits a blog post to a blog which is subsequently published. (Check!)
    • “Blog post” is an individual webpage on a blog which contains an article, a story, or a series of stories. (Check!)
    • “Compensation” includes anything of value provided to a blogger in exchange for a blog post or series of blog posts. If not provided in currency, it must be the fair-market value of the item or service exchanged. (Oops!)

As you might not be aware, I am not paid for my posts. As such, unless I can argue that the many, many positive comments I receive after publication of a post, while not currency, might be considered “fair-market value of the item or service exchanged,” my posts, past and present, won’t break the law.

Since arguing that reader comments would not qualify as “fair-market value” in a court of law (but what a great “Law and Order” episode it would make), I’m asking you, dear readers that if you would like to join in my crusade against the DeSantis gestapo (or KGB – depending on who your favorite dictator is) you might consider depositing any $ sum in my Around the Block trust account: Account number 1234567890/Routing number 987654321. Unlike in Brodeur’s bill, where the fines will go to either the Legislative Lobbyist Registration Trust Fund, the Executive Branch Lobby Registration Fund or, both, your contributions to the Around the Block Trust will allow for not only the continued great opinions you relish, but to my potential incarceration and bigger pulpit!

(Yes, in Brodeur’s bill the fines will go to pay lobbyists! And in a trust! Like you can trust lobbyists.)

Let me close with this. While Trump is still leading in most recent GOP presidential polls, DeSantis is second in every one. Now no one wants to see a repeat of a Trump presidency. But if Trump stumbles (like if he goes to prison), a DeSantis presidency is a distinct possibility. So, to all my California friends who will use this bill as yet another example of the error of my ways in moving to sunny Florida, all I can say is, “IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!”

Evita implored Argentina not to cry for her; should we be crying for Argentina (and Brazil and Chile)?

Commentary

A recent cruise to South America re-kindled my fascination with that continent. Unfortunately, I didn’t love what I saw. It can’t happen here, can it?

In a recent post I mentioned a trip Sharon and I embarked on in January – an almost three-week South American cruise. The trip included port calls in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. As I wrote in that post, it was my first visit to South America since 1968 when I was Gunnery/Fire Control Officer aboard USS McCloy (DE-1038) during which, as part of joint operations with various South American navies called “Unitas IX,” we circumnavigated South America.

Even before that Navy deployment I had always been enamored of South America, particularly Argentina and Chile. Why? Perhaps it was the fact that my language of choice in school was Spanish. While my linguistic skills never really evolved beyond the first page of my junior high Spanish primer – “¿Qué es un burro? Un burro es un animal. ¿Es un burro un animal malo? No, un burro es un animal bueno.”* – my real interest was centered around the history, the culture and, ultimately, the unfulfilled potential of these countries.

(*What is a donkey? A donkey is an animal. Is a donkey a bad animal? No, a donkey is a good animal.)

That Navy deployment in 1968 was an eye-opener. The South American navies our task group sailed with were smart and efficient; their officers, sophisticated. One example of that sophistication was a lunch I and my fellow McCloy officers were invited to aboard the Chilean navy flagship, the Bernardo O’Higgins, formerly the American cruiser the USS Brooklyn.  (Bernardo O’Higgins was the Chilean liberator who helped free Chile from Spanish colonialism in the early 19th century. He was the Chilean counterpart to Simon Bolivar [Colombia and Venezuela] and Jose de San Martín [Argentina].

At that lunch we were served aperitifs before, and wine with, the meal (strictly verboten on U.S. Navy vessels). But more shocking was the heretofore unknown (to us) first course – a whole steamed artichoke! As we sat there staring at this weird, green, cactusy looking thing on our plates, the captain of the Bernardo O’Higgins, seeing our discomfort, smiled and said, “Pull off a leaf, dip it into the dressing, put the leaf in your mouth between your teeth and pull. The taste was exquisite; I’ll always remember my first time – with an artichoke!

After 55 years, the anticipation of a return to South America was palpable. Unfortunately, what I saw was more of that unfulfilled potential.

Brazil, where we visited Rio de Janeiro and several other smaller coastal cities, is uncomfortable to be in. Not only are tourists admonished not to wear any expensive, flashy jewelry, they are also told to remove their Apple watches (yes, there have been instances where these watches have been ripped off tourist’s wrists) and to also keep their iPhones in their pockets since an iPhone held in one’s hand is an invitation to having it swiped. And I won’t even get into the lookouts who monitor tourists purchasing high-end items in shopping malls, alert their accomplices at the mall exits who then accost the unsuspecting tourists, robbing them of their purchases and money.

In the magnificent city of Buenos Aires, home to the Teatro Colon, one of the greatest opera houses in the world (for me, the renown of a city’s opera house is one way of recognizing a city’s greatness) the rate of inflation is 100%!

In both countries (and in Chile), the recent history of military coups, social injustice, income disparity, government corruption and systemic government sanctioned disappearances of protesters is beyond belief. Beyond belief given the level of education and the natural resources of each of these countries.

Only Uruguay, the tiny country surrounded by all this instability, has escaped the misfortune of its neighbors. Perhaps that’s why the capital, Montevideo, is becoming a haven for expats dissatisfied with life in their own countries.

Despite all this, my interest in South America has not wavered; if anything it has intensified as I try to understand through books and films what went wrong.

Since my return, I’ve added books like, “The Spanish-American Revolutions, 1808-1826” by the British historian, John Lynch and “Evita: The Real Lives of Eva Peron” by historians Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro to my bookshelf and Kindle library. And begun re-watching films that covered the turmoil. Films about Argentina’s Dirty War from 1976-1983 including “The Disappeared” and “The Official Story;” “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, “a film concerning Brazil’s 1970 military coup which resulted in the persecution of political activists; and Chile’s seminal, 3-part film, “The Battle of Chile: The Struggle of an Unarmed People,” which chronicles the political tension in Chile in 1973, and the overthrowing of leftist president Salvador Allende, a coup assisted by the American CIA.

My quest is to understand how the countries that came out of the South American revolutions of the early 19th century, revolutions coming so soon after our own American revolution, turned out so differently than ours. How Argentina, which before the Great Depression was among the 10 richest economies in the world, succumbed to Peronism, the cynical duplicity of Evita and later, even worse chaos. How demagogues and generals in all three countries became despotic dictators at the expense of democracy and the people, many of whom became known as “Los Desaparecidos” (“the disappeared”).

What can we learn from South America’s unfortunate history? Can that misfortune happen again? Can we sit here at home, content in our “American Exceptionalism” when we have politicians impugning the integrity of our own free and fair elections through their “big lie?” Can we feel secure when two years ago we experienced our own insurrection, fomented by a sitting president? Can we be complacent when a member of Congress, whose influence with the leaders of her party is only exceeded by her arrogance, racism and stupidity, calls for the secession from the Union by “red states” (a “divorce”in her dog whistle terms), an issue that was settled by the founder of that member’s party, Abraham Lincoln, in a Civil War over 150 years ago.

Can the United States be the next Argentina, or Chile, or Brazil? Yes, the idea may be farfetched. But not so farfetched that it stopped Sinclair Lewis from writing his 1935 dystopian political novel, “It Can’t Happen Here.” Or Phillip Roth from writing his 2004 alternative history, “The Plot Against America.” Were Lewis and Roth seers or doomsayers? I don’t have the answer. But I do wonder, how low can we go?

If you think prices of eggs and gas are inflated, wait ’til you see what I discovered in an old airline timetable

Commentary

As I ease into the return of Around the Block, I thought I’d take it slowly. Sure, I could opine on the antics of my governor, Ron DeSantis. But you’re probably already aware of his antics. Or, I could write about what’s happening in Israel and whether, with the current Netanyahu government, characterized as the most right-wing government in the history of the State of Israel, democracy in “Eretz Yisroel” is salvageable. Or, perhaps closer to home, with gerrymandering and the tyranny of the Electoral College, whether democracy is salvageable here at home in the good old United States of America.

Without doubt at some point in the not-to-distant future I will write something about all those issues. But not today. Because today I’d like to talk about one of the most trying issues facing us in America. Inflation.

You’ve all suffered the ravages of inflation. And even if you haven’t, the media has told you about those ravages. $12 for a dozen eggs. $6+ per gallon for gas. And it’s not just eggs and gas. Recent government data indicate that food prices have outpaced the overall inflation rate, rising nearly 11% year-over-year. And, costs have risen even faster for food meant to be consumed at home, which has seen a roughly 13% hike.

To put all this in perspective, a study done in November 2022 detailed year on year inflation for a basketful of consumer goods:

Why are we being ravaged by inflation? Most of you who read this blog will attribute these horrifying numbers to pandemic-incurred supply chain issues. Others will blame the Russian war against Ukraine. And, of course, two of my readers will pin the blame directly on Joe Biden. (Wait, what – did I hear Trump say there would have been no inflation, no pandemic, no war in Ukraine if the election hadn’t been stolen from him?)

Never mind.

If you think inflation is bad now. let me put all this into perspective.

How?

With an amazing artifact that a friend dropped at my doorstep: a TWA timetable covering April 25-May 31, 1982. Apparently, they published this 30-page booklet every month. I guess the airlines have a long history of eco-unfriendliness.

(Wait, I’m assuming many [most?] of you are old enough to remember TWA – Trans World Airlines. Back in the day TWA and its arch rival PanAm – Pan American World Airways – dominated the skies not only in the U.S. but all over the world; they were the only U.S.-based airlines to fly international routes. It wasn’t for naught that both included the word World in their names.

Ok you’re probably thinking at this point, what’s with the aviation history lesson? Is the next paragraph going to be about the Wright brothers or Charles Lindbergh? Wasn’t this story going to be about the ravages of inflation?

Yes. But a little context is always important to put a story into perspective.

Before I throw this artifact out (sorry Neil), I thumbed through it and found some fine print that puts meat around Joe Biden’t pledge to compel airlines to stop nickel and diming their customers with outrageous additional fees. In this case, baggage fees.

In 1982, TWA allowed each passenger in any class (even Economy) two bags of up 62 pounds each at no charge. If, for some reason, like say you were using TWA to move your entire wardrobe, the extra charge would be $7 per 62 pound piece up to a total of four additional pieces. Let’s do the math. If you brought six 62 pound bags with you on your TWA flight from New York to San Francisco (a total weight of 372 pounds), your fee would $28!

How does that $0 to $28 charge compare to today’s baggage fees. The best method would be to compare TWA’s 1982 baggage fees to the airline flying today that is most comparable to TWA, United Airlines. For the purpose of this comparison, I’ve used a customer with no frequent flyer status since TWA’s baggage fees were the same for any class of service. Below is United’s Baggage Fee Calculator:

Assuming no overweight luggage on United, here’s how the fees compare:

So, for the standard two-bag per person load, United fees are $80 more for carrying 24 pounds less. Since determining a % increase is difficult if the starting amount is $0, let’s say that TWA’s fee was $1/bag making the two bag total $2. The percent increase from $2 to $80 is 3,900%. Over the course of the 40 years since 1982, the annual rate of increase would be 97.5%. And if those United bags weighed 62 pounds each, the TWA allowance, the fee would be $280 and the percent increase would be 13,900% or 347.5% per annum. Now that’s inflation!

And I haven’t even addressed advanced seat fees, carry-on bag fees and the costs of once-free meals.

Welcome to the friendly skies!

Putin pulls out of nuclear nonproliferation agreement; claims Ukraine started war

News with a Twist*

Around the Block uncovers source of Putin’s delusions: Bronya, the Russian version of Sophie’s Barbie.

*(“News with a Twist” was the original conceit of Around the Block – stories based on real news “twisted” a bit for fun. In some cases the twist was, while satirical, plausible; so plausible that many readers didn’t know when “real” morphed into “twisted.” Other posts revealed the “twist” from the get-go. But, as the news became grimmer, as the “sides” moved further, irreconcilably apart, I found it more difficult, more disingenuous to twist the news. The story you’re about to read allowed me, if only briefly to resurrect the genre. Hopefully, this won’t be the last.)

The Washington Post reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a state of the nation address Tuesday that Moscow is “suspending” its participation in the New START nuclear nonproliferation agreement, the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia.

Putin’s rationale for suspending this treaty, one that’s been in place since 2011, can be summed up in this excerpt from his speech: “Our relations have degraded, and that’s completely and utterly the U.S.’s fault.”

While Russia’s pulling out from the treaty, which placed “verifiable limits” on the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads deployed by the signatory countries was the headline, other aspects of his SOTN, particularly regarding Russia’s “war” with Ukraine, were turning heads around the globe.

As the Post reported, Putin kicked off the speech with a now-routine mix of fervent anti-Western attacks and conspiratorial tropes about Ukraine’s “neo-Nazi regime,” once again falsely claiming that the war was initiated by the West, forcing Russia to respond. The Russian president, who for most of the first year of his full-scale invasion refused to use the word “war,” used it during his speech, but only to cast blame on others for the military conflict that began on his orders.

“They were the ones who started the war,” Putin said, referring to Ukraine and Western “elites” supporting Kyiv. “We used force and continue to use it to stop it.”

The Post went on to report that Putin accused the West of “using Ukraine both as a battering ram against Russia and as a training ground,” warning that increased Western military aid would prompt a tougher response from Russia. “One circumstance should be clear to everyone — the more long-range Western systems will come to Ukraine, the further we will be forced to push the threat away from our borders,” he said.

Response from the West was prompt and pointed.

“What was he smoking?” asked one European leader.

“Did the devil make him do it?” asked a U.S. senator who asked that their name not be used due to the sensitivity of the issue.

This was not enough for Around the Block, so our crack investigative team went to work and discovered that Putin was affected by the same demon that caused so much anguish for little Sophie, below.

The result of our investigation? Around the Block has learned that in Putin’s case, after being told over 100 times by his Russian Barbie doll knock-off, Bronya, that Ukraine started the war, he exhaustedly gave in and included this bit of Russian mythology in the SOTN. And the mythology seemed to work – at least to Putin’s toadies in the audience. As the Post reported, the reaction of the hundreds of officials and other dignitaries attending the nearly two-hour address, including solemn-looking lawmakers and officials, bored-looking religious leaders, and active-duty members of Russia’s military was four standing ovations in the best tradition of Soviet Politburo meetings.

Please note that this is a developing story. Around the Block investigators are working 24/7 attempting to obtain a video, similar to the Sophie/Barbie one, of Bronya telling Putin over 100 times that Ukraine started the war. Stay tuned.

Where have you gone, Around the Block? A nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you.

Commentary

I’m back…with a little help from my friends, Cole Porter, Paul Simon and a concerned reader.

I haven’t posted in a while…a long while. I just checked. My last column was published on December 16. It’s been so long since I’ve written that the other day I received the following message from one of my most devoted and responsive readers:

“Are you okay, Ted? It has been quite a while since your last post. I miss your writing. Are you ill, or is someone you hold dear unwell? From a concerned reader.”

Continue reading “Where have you gone, Around the Block? A nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you.”