MORNING STEW #29

Another Morning Stew day!

Today because so many diverse topics. Not certain what to open with nor order to lay them out. The result is they come to you in the order they appear in my notes.

Sanctions/embargoes can hurt. Lead to war as is recognized by the Japanese decision to bomb Pearl Harbor.

Trump loves sanctions. His weapon of war.

North Korea did a big test yesterday. The biggest yet. Kim Jong Un wants sanctions on North Korea by U.S. lifted. It has been 2 years North Korea and the U.S. have been talking or trying to talk.

North Korea blames Trump for no result. North Korea wants the sanctions removed first. Trump does not seem to have a grave concern either way. He keeps telling the American people he and Kim are “friends.” “In love with each other.”

Many a love relationship breaks up in a nasty fashion. Trump playing tough guy might force Kim to make a difficult decision.

Pete Buttigieg. An interesting man. I believe he is Presidential timber. Though not this year.

It took the U.S. forever to accept a person of color as President. It will take more time to accept a gay person. The U.S. is not yet ready for a “First Gentleman.”

Putin may soon “beat” Trump again.

The Ukraine has been a U.S. friend for 30 years.

Ukraine is at war with Russia. Friends help friends. Trump however held up almost $400 million dollars Congress had approved to help the Ukraine in its war with Russia. For personal political reasons.

While Trump has refused to give Zelensky the personal meeting requested, Putin has moved in. Ukraine sits down with its Russian enemy tomorrow in Paris.

Trump has the propensity to screw things up. Should Zelensky and Putin walk away “friends” and their war on the road to ending, Trump will have lost another valuable friend.

Putin is good at one upmanship when it comes to Trump.

Beer. A new diet?

Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond needed to slim down. He took up yoga and dieted over the summer. His diet might be described as the beer diet.

Drummond was not much of a beer drinker prior to the diet. Now swears by it. Says “I never drank so much beer in my life.”

Meats were also eliminated. Strictly a fish man now.

Begins with a cold one for lunch. How much at dinner and other times, I do not know.

Today the 6’10” player weighs 279 pounds.

The diet appears to be working. Thus far this season, he is averaging 17.1 points and 17.1 rebounds per game. No pro basketball player since Moses Malone in the 1970’s has done as well.

The beer diet was not Drummond’s idea.The diet is the result of physical tests to reveal the granular particulars of his body and decide the most effective method for him to eat.

Giuliani is going to hurt to people. Himself and the President. He is a cannon out of control. Back in the Ukraine this past week. Claims to be coming up with the Ukraine 2016 and Biden dirt he has been seeking. He wants to appear before Congress to share it.

Trump appears excited by the Giuliani news.

Two nuts! I can visualize both men sitting in a corner holding their pumpkin pies. At a point they each stick in their fingers, pull out a plum, and say “What a good boy am I!”

William Barr functioning as no other Attorney General has.

The Department of Justice he heads has 113,000 employees.

In recent months, Barr has traveled to Great Britain and Italy seeking “dirt” re the 2016 election and the Bidens. He has communicated with the highest echelons of the Australian government, also.

The Attorney General is like the CEO of a major corporation. He makes policy and at the same time makes sure that the many Attorney General obligations under the law are followed.

He does not dig ditches. Traveling as he has to investigate comparable to digging ditches. He has enough experienced staff out of the 113,000 to do the traveling and investigating.

There is another strangeness to the trips. Barr is investigating the investigators. His Department has already completed the investigations and found no wrongdoing.

David Lufman is a former Justice Department official. He observed, it is “fairly unorthodox for the Attorney General to be flying around the world as point person to further gather evidence for a specific Justice Department investigation.”

Uber sexual assaults have been in the news for several months. The news seemed to apply to passengers. Turns out drivers have been sexually assaulted, also. So much so, there is a movement to provide drivers with “employment protection.”

There were 3,045 sexual assaults last year. Forty percent were by passengers assaulting drivers.

Another woman’s world in the making?

Syracuse won big friday! Finally! Beat Georgia Tech 97-63. Wow! Big Syracuse numbers!

Both teams had similar poor records going into the game. Let us hope Syracuse continues to score in the 90’s in its coming games.

Georgetown next saturday.

The Key West Christmas Parade was its usual “best” last night. A spectacular event for a small town.

Long. One float after another. One convertible after another. Candy being thrown from the floats and cars to children curbside.

Three million Santa Claus’s participating. An exaggeration, of course. At least 25 in the Parade, however.

An Auschwitz love story in today’s New York Times: “Lovers in Auschwitz , Reunited 72 Years Later. He Had One Question. Was She The Reason He Was Alive Today.” The article by Keren Blankfeld dated 12/8/19.

I would love sharing the details with you. However too long and detailed. Read the article. You will weep!

Another German concentration camp story bears mention today. “Sophie’s Choice.”

It was on this day 1982 that the movie “Sophie’s Choice” opened in theaters throughout the U.S. Meryl Streep starred. The movie based on William Styron’s best selling 1979 novel of the same name.

The book and movie heart wrenching. Involved a choice no mother should ever have to make. Streep’s character had to choose which of her 2 children would live or die when in a German concentration camp.

Nineteen eighty seven not so long ago. A mere 32 years ago. It was a different time. The quality of the people involved different, also.

On this day in 1987, the U.S. and Russia agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals. Reagan and Gorbachev doing the negotiating.

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

 

 

One comment on “MORNING STEW #29

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *