Month: Nov 2019

By Robert A. Vella

There is one behavior (among many) Donald Trump has consistently shown when the heat from various investigations into his presidency and private life got too hot for him to take.  He always throws his closest associates under the bus in order to save himself.  Trump is nothing more than a raging megalomaniac without a shred of character, integrity, morality, or sophistication.  Like he did to Michael Cohen – his former personal lawyer and fix-it man who is rotting away in federal prison, he is doing now to Rudy Giuliani – his current “personal lawyer” and point-man in the Ukraine scandal who is under federal investigation for a bagful of potential criminal charges.

While Trump demands loyalty from everyone, he gives loyalty to no one.

However, Rudy said he has “insurance” to protect himself from Trump’s abandonment.  We’ll see.  Cohen came clean, but he went to jail…

By Robert A. Vella

We kickoff this Monday with several impeachment developments and related news, President Trump’s authoritarian turf war against the U.S. Navy, a big election result in Hong Kong, a story on rising social unrest across the globe, an unfolding election in Uruguay marking further political change throughout South America, and a climate change update on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

Also, an important court ruling is expected today on former White House Counsel Don McGahn‘s refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena which had ordered him to appear before a House committee for testimony.  This case may affect other such witnesses as well.

Impeachment news

From:  White House review turns up emails showing extensive effort to justify Trump’s decision to block Ukraine military aid

A confidential White House review of President Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up…

In the above tweet, Rachel Moss is talking about the much-hyped film, Last Christmas, starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding (and at this point, if you want to avoid spoilers, click away).

As quite a few people already figured out from the not-too-subtle trailers, the film’s love story has a twist. It turns out that the mysterious (Asian) love interest who swoops in and out of Clarke’s life with the perfect blend of romance and feel-good emotional intensity, is in fact, well … dead. To be precise, he’s her organ donor. ‘My heart … was always going to be yours, one way or another.’ I feel faintly nauseous, and it’s not just Brexit repeating on me.

I expect the film is, as we are assured in the article to which Moss links, still enjoyable, light-hearted fun. Except for those pesky racist undertones, which she quite rightly identifies. Even…

Regency newspapers regularly carried advertisements for ‘lost’ items of property- clothes, banknotes, watches, horses and poneys (as they used to spell it), legal documents and dogs. In the case of dogs, ‘lost’ was often a euphemism. They had had been kidnapped, or found in the street and kept by somebody who would not wish to hand it over without a reward. The distinction between a reward for a finder and a ransom for a thief was not always clear.

These were not working dogs- the occasional advertisement for strayed foxhounds was probably genuine. There were the only two types of canine that had a resale value- the working animals of farmers and the landed gentry, and the pets of the metropolitan rich. Both were advertised in the newspaper. Lost dog advertisements- for spaniels, pointers, poodles ,greyhounds, setters and pugs appeared mostly in the London newspapers from people living in Portman…