This is a wonderful hour-long documentary, Nichols and May: Take Two,  on the years Mike Nichols and Elaine May were the top comedy team in the country.  It’s filled with not only clips of some of their most-famous sketches, but even some little-seen (virtually never seen since it aired…) material.  If you know Nichols and May, this will be filled with great treats.  And if you don't know Nichols and May, it's a gem of a primer.  With big thanks to the inveterate Chris Dunn for passing the link on to me. 

One note:  there is a voice-over later in the documentary when Steve Allen comments that it’s a shame they didn’t work together after they split up their partnership.  Because of when the documentary was made, what he says here turns out not to be true.  They not only made very successful movies together, which he directed and she wrote (The Birdcage and Primary Colors), but also periodically teamed up again as comedy partners for special occasion reunion sketches.

Bet your bottom dollar.
Tomorrow, there'll be Sun.

As part of our new effort to write shorter and more focused pieces, we offer the following:
 
Back in early 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Chinese national crypto founder Justin Sun and three of his companies with “fraudulently manipulating the secondary market” for a crypto token by using unregistered securities.  The SEC filled other charges of illegal activities against Sun, as well.

As the case made its way through the system, shortly after the 2024 election Sun not only became the largest investor in World Liberty Fund -- the Trump-backed crypto project -- buying $30 million of its tokens, he publicly announced the fact on TwiXter about how proud he was to do so.  This despite the tokens being largely worthless to him because they are non-transferable.

Further, since then Sun has invested an additional $45 million in WLF.  What this translates to is that, given Trump’s take in the venture, Sun’s $75 million of purchases has brought Trump personally over $50 million.
 
In totally unrelated news... --
 
Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby report on their excellent Popular Information Substack site that on Wednesday, “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Sun sent a joint letter to a federal judge, asking for a stay of Sun's case. Today, the judge granted the SEC's request.” 

So, the case has been halted.
 
To be clear, the charges are not dropped, but remain active.  The stay is to “allow the Parties to explore a potential resolution.”  Which is lovely.  On the other hand, the case has been ongoing for two years, and it’s only one month into Trump’s term in office when defendant Sun and the SEC have together suddenly decided not to go forward with the case but try to settle.

​

Once again, it's time to go Out and About with Jiminy Glick.  This time, he has an odd and very funny interview with Mickey Rooney.  I'm going to guess that, for as long a career as he had and as many interviews as he did, it's not the kind of interview that Mickey Rooney was used to having...
​

Nell Minow, my partner in the Apology Institute of America, sent me an article about the apology made by Tom Hill, the CEO and co-owner of Engineered Structures, Inc. -- a major construction management company in Idaho -- after making a Nazi salute at the firm's "State of the Company" last week.  She asked my thoughts and the ratings I'd give his apology for our records.

My first response, before giving a rating, was immediately thinking, "What CEO gives a Nazi salute at his 'State of the Company' event?  Unless maybe you're Josef Goebbels.  What on earth was he thinking???  Assuming 'thought' was part of the process."

Among Mr. Hill's immediate comments to the press were calling the action his “attempt at humor and parody” and claimed that he was mimicking Trump and Elon Musk’s “signature dancing.” Hill also told the press that people “will hate me” for being a “Christian, Republican, a patriot,” but added that “I wish they would be honest about why they choose to hate me.”

In reading his initial statement, I would suggest that what he said right after the event doesn’t even qualify as an apology, so it almost doesn’t deserve a rating.  But since we are a rating service, it gets an F-.
 
It also answers his own comment, “I wish they would be honest about why they choose to hate me.”  Well, that’s easy -- it’s honestly because you’re the kind of guy who gives the Nazi salute.  Further, just in case you need more reasons, you think this is an act of American patriotism and want to believe that mimicking a symbol of gassing to death six million Jews and an effort to take over the world domination was an attempt at humor.  This is another reason, too, why it's a good thing some people go into construction management and not comedy.

The thing is, though, I noticed that there were links embedded in the news story.  And so, I decided to click through and found the letter to his company several with a much more detailed apology that he offered days later, after he officially resigned. 

On the one hand, the letter said many things that were proper for a good apology and acknowledged that his original response "fell short" and "I realize it was defensive".  On the other hand, its main part with the apology read like it was written by a lawyer and came days after the fact.  Moreover, he still contended his Nazi salute was merely an attempt at a “comment” on today’s turbulent politics -- without explaining what that commentary actually was (and without recognizing that it’s the comfort that people like himself feel to give a Nazi salute which is at the very core of the turbulence in today’s politics).
 
But then I noticed something else -- other embedded links.  So, I clicked through even further, and found what was his actual, official resignation letter which was posted on the company’s LinkedIn page a day before this letter to the company, a letter that now turns out to have been a third attempt to apologize. 

In his resignation letter (his second try), he doesn’t say any of the more apologetic things in his third go at it.  Instead, he wrote that “While my behavior was never intended to promote hatred or extremist views…” (without explaining what in the world it was intended to promote…) – “…I recognize that it has rightfully generated intense backlash and has overshadowed the mission of our company.”

In other words, in his official resignation, it’s just the "backlash" that’s the problem, because without the overshadowing backlash, he’d have had no reason to resign.  So, it’s really sort of the fault of others for reacting so badly to his Nazi salute.  And he’s not resigning because he did something so deeply reprehensible and almost-inexplicably thoughtless, but only because it got in the way of the company's mission.  Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have had to resign or even apologize.

To be fair, in that second letter (the resignation letter), he does apologize and take full responsibility for his actions (a very good and always important thing to say, though who else would anyone think is responsible?), and will learn from his mistake.  So, good for that.  But he follows that immediately by saying, “I remain deeply regretful for what this incident has created” -- but to be clear, the only thing the incident “created” was anger at him and his resignation.  So, he’s leaving out any regret for making one of the most hate-filled gestures in human history and his utter stupidity and irresponsibility at not realizing this about the Nazi salute -- something almost unbelievable for any adult, especially one in a position of leadership whose decisions direct the company he heads.

So, it’s hard to know what apology to rate, since there are three, each delivered at different times.
 
His initial “apology” is largely unratable, but it must be rated, so we’ll give it an F-.
 
His third, long apology, has much in it that’s good, though the problem is that it comes after two attempts (which raises question of its sincerity and authorship) and still tries to dilute the egregious thoughtlessness and reprehensible action as mere “comment” on today’s politics.  Had it been his second apology that accompanied his resignation, it would probably get a C-.  But as a third try, it gets downgraded.  So, it’s a D+.
 
His actual resignation with his second attempt at apologizing and his first official try at apologizing is a D-.

Mr. Hill does get credit for acknowledging that he really did make a Nazi salute, something Elon Musk never has done.  But good and important as acknowledgement is for any apology -- and also didn't fall back on the old chestnut "If I offended anyone" (which would have been hard to do since there was clearly no "if" about it, which led to his resigning), it's still only the first step that leads into the actual apology.

And ultimately, that's the thing.  Making a Nazi salute is one of the most basic actions for requiring an apology.  And as a result, it's also in many of the easiest apologies to make.  Since it starts with, "What in the world was I thinking??!!  I am so deeply sorry.  It was so incredibly wrong and so idiotically stupid and so hurtful.  I will not do that again."  And although saying more in explanation of your understanding would be good, if you just stopped there, you would be far ahead of the game.

I stumbled on a series of video purely by accident, and they're fascinating.  They're all from a pianist Paul Barton who has used music to deal with people therapeutically, and wondered if it would be effective with animals, as well.  Before going any further, thought, it think some perspective is in order to show what an accomplished musician he is, so here's a one-minute video of Paul Barton playing the Chopin Prelude #16 in a studio --

Back to the elephants.  Barton contacted the Elephants World organization in Thailand and - well, rather than post his videos, I'll hold off another moment because I thought it would be best first to let hm tell about it in this video, much better than I can.  (One note:  while he talks about playing a piece by Beethoven, the music they show him playing is actually Debussy's Clair de Lune.)

​More of these to come (they're wonderful), but this is a good way to start --

Pretty much no one other than the principals involved (and I, of course, include myself among the "Pretty much no one") has even the slightest way of knowing if this is even remotely true in the slightest.  I don't believe it is, but there's more shading to the story, which is the point here today.
 
This was posted on TwiXter a couple nights ago by Seth Abrahamson, who’s a reasonably well-respected “journalist, lawyer, NYT-bestselling Trump and Musk biographer, former CNN and BBC analyst, retired journalism professor.”  He wrote --
 
“MAJOR BREAKING NEWS: The Daily Beast published a sourced allegation that Trump has been a Russian spy since 1987 and—possibly under threat—deleted it. But in an act of unusual heroism, it left it up long enough for archives to capture. PLEASE RETWEET:”
 
Now, honestly, as I said, although I obviously have zero way of knowing if this story -- alleged by a former Soviet intelligence chief -- is true, I doubt that it is.  Further, I completely understand why it has been basically unreported:  there just is far too much that isn't or can't be (for now) corroborated for such a highly-damning charge -- though whether that's the reason, or it was pulled by The Daily Beast under pressure, which is another matter (and story...) entirely.  Rather, I’m writing about this because, while I doubt that Trump is a “Russian spy,” I have long believed (and wrote on these pages during his 2016 campaign) that I do think Putin has something on Trump who (while not a “spy”) is what’s known in Russia as a “useful idiot.”
 
And I say this, not as a conspiratorialist or just because so many of Trump’s actions heavily embrace Putin and Russia.  That grip can, in part (or in very large part) be attributed to his well-documented love of strongmen dictators like Hungary’s Orban, Turkey’s Erdogan, North Korea’s Kim, China’s Xi, Putin of course, and more -- but I say it because of another factor.
 
It’s well-known and accepted that Russia spies on and records prominent businessmen from around the world when the visit the country.  And Trump, we know, visited Russia often before he was elected in 2016, trying to set up deals there, trying to get the rights to a Trump-brand hotel in Moscow.  What we also know is Trump loves, loves, loves to talk about himself and brag endlessly to salve his rapaciously needy ego.  And we know he loves to flaunt laws (putting aside him saying he wants to throw out the U.S. Constitution, witness his settlement with the DOJ for illegal rental practices and his many recent convictions).  And loves to humiliate others.  And exaggerates and lies.
 
So, it is near-impossible for me to imagine that in all his trips to Russia, Trump didn’t try to impress his Russian hosts with how brilliant he was in making deals and tricking people he was negotiating with and cheating the fools.  And cheating the government, getting around their laws using his mass of attorneys to find loopholes both legal and illegal -- we even heard him brag in his 2016 debate with Hilary Clinton that he didn’t pay any taxes, and the reason he gave was “Because I’m smart.”  There are a lot of actually smart people who pay taxes.  And we heard him brag that women let you do anything if you’re a star and can grab their p*ssy.  And we know he was found liable (twice) for the equivalence of rape.  So, he likely bragged in Russia, as well, what he did with and to women whether they wanted him to do so or not.  Bragged about whatever he could – the truth, exaggerations, lies – including clever things, questionably deceitful things and even illegal things to impress every Russian businessman, every Russian government official, every Russian period who he met.
 
It's just almost impossible for me to even imagine he didn’t.  And it’s equally impossible for me to imagine that throughout it all, when at a party or in a private room, his Russian comrade wouldn’t say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that clearly, could you repeat it and speak louder into that vase.”  Or into their lapel pin.  Or into the bed headboard.  Or into wherever a microphone was hidden.  And it’s all on tape or digitized.
 
I cannot imagine that Trump didn’t say things that would be deeply embarrassing to him if made public or that was illegal because he says all of that regularly, almost every time he’s spoken in public for the past eight years.  If not decades.  And it’s impossible for me to think Russia doesn’t have a vault dedicated to what Trump has said (embarrassing, illegal or just boring) on his visits over the years – because that’s what Russia does for all prominent businessmen.
 
And so, I’ve long believed that Russia has something recorded on file about Trump that he wouldn’t want known. They probably have massive volumes of such things on Trump – much about things illegal -- but even just “something” that’s embarrassing is enough.  And so, it’s almost near-impossible to imagine he hasn’t been a “useful idiot” for Russia for decades.  And when you do even just one favor for Putin and Russia, you’re hooked.  Because everything then builds on that and gets worse.  And then – to Putin’s amazement and joy – this “useful idiot” and plain idiot because president of the United States.
 
I would believe that in my bones even if Trump never was elected.  And I would believe it even if he didn’t lay down and roll over for Putin at every chance he’s had.  But given the reality that Trump was elected – and that he has rolled over for Putin about not just near-everything, but the most egregious, reprehensible things – now, saying that Ukraine started the war that Russia began and saying that it’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy who’s the dictator, not Putin who has been charged by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal – it’s on the edge of impossible that Trump today is in Russia and Putin’s pocket.
 
That doesn’t make him a “spy.”  In fact, being Trump, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s convinced himself that everything he says and does that favors Putin is perfectly normal and his own idea and brilliant and all for the good of America.  What it does, though, is make him – at best – a “useful idiot.”
 
With all that said, here’s how that archived Daily Beast article begins.  But first, I must repeat:  I don’t believe Trump is a Russian spy (for starters, because I think Trump is too much of an actual idiot to be a spy...) -- while adding that my not believing it doesn’t mean it’s not so, I just don’t believe it, most especially without serious evidence. But everything the former Soviet intelligence chief has charged in the article could overlap with and give weight to the likely truth of Putin having something embarrassing or illegal on Trump and threatening him with going public...and using him --

There's more, and you can read the full archived article here.