Hey, we tries nots to steers ya wrong. You may recall last week I wrote a sort of double-header article here that tied together two stories about problems for Trump. If not, a quick recap: One dealt with a report from The Stern Facts about money laundering with Russia over building the Trump Soho Hotel for which emails with all his children were made public. The other seemingly-unrelated story concerned a Trump business partner who had already cooperated with the Special Counsel and was telling his family that he and Trump were going to jail. And the connection between the two stories was a man named Felix Sater, who in the past (among many other things) has plead guilty in a $40 million racketeering case that involved the Mafia. Well...guess who's back in the news? The Washington Post has a new story here with the headline, "Trump's business sought deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow while he ran for president." This deal, for which Trump had signed a letter of intent, came all the while Trump was repeatedly denying that he had any business dealings with Russia. Most bluntly in a July, 2016 tweet, "For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia," followed the very next day at a news conference, "I have nothing to do with Russia." And the developer at the center of the story is...is...is...(oh, okay, you can figure it out) -- Felix Sater!!! As the story notes, "a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested he could get President Vladimir Putin to say 'great things' about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence. "The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating — both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump's election as president..." Like I said, I tries nots to steers ya wrong. The thing is, it's not just that Felix Sater is a key witness to this and to so much of Trump's other business dealings -- but (as my earlier article said) he's already cooperated with the Feds. And anyone who questions whether that's true, his own words he said he's going to jail, and Trump, too. The importance of Felix Sater was so clear to me when I saw those two unrelated articles. And remembered him from during the campaign (when Trump denied knowing Sater, despite there being photos of the two of them on stage almost side-by-side). It wasn't hard for me to put the importance of them together. And now, here comes this article!! Of course, I think it's been obvious to most people that they key to Trump's downfall -- which ultimately is also the doorway to his Russia connections -- was through his business dealings over the past decade, and probably the last 20 years. There was too much public and on the record that was clearly seedy for which it's impossible to not think permeates through everything. And explains Russia. And that Felix Sater is central to so much of it. Not all, but plenty. Couldn't happen to a sweller guy. And here's a bonus for you. A clip from a 2013 edition of the BBC show Panorama, where the interviewer Jon Sweeney aggressively presses Trump on Felix Sater, and as much as Trump tries to deny any connection (even rudely tries to deny it, calling the interviewer "maybe you're thick"), Sweeney keeps bluntly asking until...Trump suddenly explains he has another engagement and leaves. I tries nots to steers ya wrong. Watch this space.
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Okay, this will likely be only of interest to Chicago Cubs fans -- but a) it has nothing to do with baseball, and b) it's fun and only a minute. As you may know, the Cubs have a tradition for almost 20 years ever since announcer Harry Caray passed away, carrying on his tradition of having a guest celebrity (some major, some local, some minor) lead the crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," accompanied by organist Gary Pressy. It's worth noting, too, that the Cubs actually still do have an organist, since so many teams have gone to recorded music to entertain the crowd. And since Pressy has been doing it for so long, he's a popular, if little-seen fixture at Wrigley Field. Well, tonight organist Gary Pressy had his own remarkable milestone. Yes, I know records in baseball are all about the athletes, but even though an organist, it's still a seriously impressive achievement. This was Gary Pressy's 2,500th consecutive game playing the organ during a Cubs game. He hasn't missed a ballgame at Wrigley Field in over 30 years! I don't care if it's just for playing the organ -- not missing a day of work in 30 years is pretty darn good. In appreciation, the Cubs gave out Gary Pressy bobble-head dolls, and invited him to be the "guest conductor" to lead the crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The big question the announcer's had during the game was "Who would accompany him on the organ?" Oh, tosh, he accompanied himself. What I love is that he gave his little introduction as if he was Harry Caray calling out to him to start. So, in honor of Gary Pressy's 2500th consecutive game -- all rise for the 7th Inning Stretch. I have a bunch of wonderful videos of this, though won't dump them all here at once today. Consider this Part One, and I'll follow it up hopefully tomorrow. Back only a few months ago, mid-March for those of you keeping score, theater producers in Australia mounted a full-scale revival of Lerner & Lowe's musical My Fair Lady. While that's not headline-making news, at least over on this side of the world, one thing about the production was -- the show was to be directed by the musical's original Liza Doolittle...Dame Julie Andrews! (From what I can tell, the production opened in Sydney, but eventually toured around the country. For all I know, it may still be playing there.) Here are a couple of initial videos of the production, and they all make it look absolutely wonderful. (And by "all," I include some coming tomorrow.) In interviews, Dame Julie talked about wanted to be as true to the 1956 original, 61 years ago, though adding a few necessary tweaks with the passage of time, and allowing the actors leeway to bring their own craft to the work. The results are great. It's really full-scale -- in the sets, costumes and orchestrations, not barebones versions that easily breaks down to pack up for the road. And from the performances I've been able to find, it all looks spot on. This first video gives a hint of all that. It's a "First Look" that includes videos and some extended clips of the final performances. By the way, strong as all the performances are, the real stand-out from all I've seen is that of Anna O'Byrne who plays Liza. It's not just that she's really terrific here -- not just singing, but triple-threat dancing and acting, as well -- but the pressure of not turning into a ball of mush when being directed in your role by the legendary actress who came to fame creating that very character must have been hellish. That she ended up as strong as she did speaks volumes. More to come tomorrow, schedule permitting... This second video gives a full performance of an early rehearsal for the song "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," opening with the sequences where Henry Higgins (played by.Charles Edwards) meets Col. Pickering. Despite the identification below calling this a "dress rehearsal," it's not. In fact, that's part of its charm -- this is clearly from the rehearsal hall and without costumes. Yet the staging and choreography is pretty much in place. The actors are still feeling their paces, so it's not at "final performance level," but they're getting there. And it's here that you get a chance to see what I was referring to above, your quite-wonderful Anna O'Byrne is. And for thems interested in reading a good article on the production, you can check out this piece here from the Sydney Morning Herald Just in: Illinois today passed two important bills. One is for automatic voter registration, and the other is a compromise bill protecting immigrants from arrest solely based on immigration status. The governor today signed both. Good for Illinois & for Rauner signing them.
Lest anyone thing this is no big deal since Illinois is a blue state -- it is, but there is a Republican governor and lieutenant governor, and downstate Illinois (the tip of which is actually south of Kentucky!) is very conservative. You can read more about it here in the Chicago Tribune. People saw Harvey coming. It wasn't invisible, like the 6-3-1/2" pooka that only Jimmy Stewart could see in the play and movie. The massive hurricane was not only reported prominently, but there were numerous stories of Republicans specifically warning Trump to handle it well and not fall into the same hole of Callous Indifference that George W. Bush disappeared into. And what's stunning is that whatever happens with the clean-up at this point, Trump has probably already far-exceeded Bush in mind-numbing insensitivity. Even if the disaster clean-up and relief program goes perfectly -- and given the overwhelming degree of damage and work that is need, it seems that that is a near impossibility for anybody, let along someone who has only shown cosmic incompetence -- Trump amazingly lived down to his monumentally-low expectations.
It began with him actually issuing a pardon the night that Hurricane Harvey hit, which was thoughtless enough whoever the pardon was handed to. But given that it was for a pardon of Arizona's racist sheriff Joe Arpaio who had run what he himself called "concentration camps" for immigrant prisoners and even once forced a woman to give birth while shackled and far, far more abuses against Hispanics -- the pardon was widely viewed with disdain as a cowardly, mean-spirited, insensitive act. If this was the only bad thing Trump did during Hurricane Harvey, it was horrible enough to cause massive problems on numerous levels for his administration (not the least of which is it raises yet another specter for abuse of power, besides which not only does the public generally hate controversial pardons -- Gerald Ford largely lost re-election because of it -- but the Arpaio pardon had a mere 20% approval in Arizona). And then, beyond even that, which was plenty-enough alone, in the middle of the horrific hurricane Trump tweeted a book recommendation (which is unethical all on its own) for Joe Clarke, yet another sheriff he'll likely have to issue a pardon for, as well as tweeted about his infamous wall (still trying to fake-insist Mexico will pay for it despite a) the public having the transcript of Trump telling the president of Mexico he understands that they won't pay for it, and b) him just saying days earlier that he wanted the U.S. Congress to act on building the wall or else he'd try to shut down the government), as well as tweets about his upcoming political trip to Missouri -- making sure to let us know that in the 2016 election he won the state...and by "a lot" (no, seriously, honestly, Trump actually "tweeted" this!!), and other yammerings. All the while, the Houston area -- the fourth-largest city in the United States -- was, is getting pummeled by this monstrous hurricane. And in his recent "tweets" on public disasters, what Trump offers to the nation is ""Wow", "Good luck everyone", "Thanks" (to the people of Houston), and "Best regards". That's the best Trump has. Those aren't the words of a leader. Or a thoughtful adult. That is the way one avoids human understanding of the the suffering that others are facing. In Trump's "tweets" about Hurricane Harvey -- tweets, for goodness sake!! -- he keeps referring to the devastation as "HISTORIC," "unprecedented" and "a 500 year event," but to be very clear that's just his way of whining to make sure you'll hopefully believe "It's not MY fault." Except the huge problem with his hopes for that is Trump dismisses Climate Change as a "Chinese hoax," cuts FEMA funds in his proposed budget, doesn't even yet have a head of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), hasn't nominated a director of the Homeland Security which oversees FEMA, and left the Paris Accord. Other people actually understood that Hurricane Harvey is precisely the sort of natural weather event that, because of Climate Change, has been happening -- in hurricanes alone we saw it with Hurricane Sandy and saw it with Hurricane Katrina -- and is very highly foreseeable, So, whatever happens in the disaster relief -- and the disaster is monumental, and there can't help but be massive holes and limitations and problems under the best of circumstances with the best of prepared and concerned leadership, none of which described the so-called president -- Trump has guaranteed on as many levels as possible that he has already failed disastrously. This week's contestant is Allison Toltz from Montreal, Canada. This is one that on every level I felt like I should get both the hidden song and composer style -- but didn't. But I danced on the edges. It's a well-known composer, but not as well-known as the most-famous of this style, and I didn't get the specific person. As for the song, it reminded me of one particular song, and I thought it was that, but not enough. So, I didn't guess it. And...that's what it turned out to be! So, if you play along and have a guess, don't veer off it. You might well be right.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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