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10/10/19 02:39 PM #9549    

 

Jack Mallory

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/politics/lev-parnas-igor-fruman-arrested-giuliani.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Like I said, just follow the flies! 

I especially like the patriotism displayed by the Trump International table setting flag. Nothing makes me prouder to be an American than our flag hanging out of a sugar bowl onto a table full of dirty glasses and coffee cups. Or Cofveve cups.

********


*********

Nora, or the Colonel, believes Trump has checkmated everone involved in Syria. A New Yorker cartoonist sees it differently.

 

 


 

 


10/11/19 07:47 AM #9550    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

I usually don't post about sports even though I like some sports...last night the Mystics women's basketball team won the title game for the first time.They played the Connecticut Sun and it was best 3 out of 5...It was one of the most thrilling games I have ever seen. Love, Joanie


10/11/19 08:35 AM #9551    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Thank you, Joanie! What a game it was!! As an ‘over the moon’ proud Auntie Nori, I would like to publicly congratulate my exceptionally beautiful (inside & out) niece, Emma Skinker (Director of Basketball Operations for the Washington Mystics) on their outstanding title championship yesterday! You rock, babe!! 


10/11/19 09:14 AM #9552    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Nori, that is so neat about your niece and the Mystics. I can tell how special she is to you. Love, joanie

10/11/19 10:00 AM #9553    

 

Glen Hirose

   I think this pretty much says it all.

   Image result for mystics win

   Nori, you must be very proud of Emma and her contributions to this Title Victory. 


10/11/19 01:48 PM #9554    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Ha, Jack! I can only hope & pray that those “puppeteers” DO think they have Trump on a string! We shall see how much power they wield. For today it would seem that, due to Trump’s unpopular withdrawal, many American lives were spared & saved from the jaws of Turkish fighting forces ripping through Syria. 

Jay, you seem ambivalent about the impeachment when your epistle begins in declaring how “sweet it is” to see the squeeze on Trump, then closes by saying impeachment brings you no joy & is a sad time. I kinda think you’re beginning was a tad more honest than the latter. No?

Yes, Glen..am truly proud of Emma, with or without a championship. She, along with the team, staff, coaches & fans have worked tirelessly for this & there’s nothing quite like the rush this result brings to all. Now, if we can only see the Nats keep DC going forward, we’ll have even more to celebrate! As for the ‘Skins, it’ll be interesting to see if life without Gruden will make a scintilla of difference. 

 


10/11/19 03:54 PM #9555    

 

Jack Mallory

"many American lives were spared & saved from the jaws of Turkish fighting forces ripping through Syria."

OMFG! The Turks were going to kill our troops and EAT THEM?

Or maybe Trump could simply have told the Turks that an invasion would result in an immediate end to the millions of dollars of US military aid and the sale of the US combat aircraft, missiles, and main battle tanks that the Turkish military is organized around and are being used in the assault on the Kurds.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhartung/2019/10/10/turkeys-invasion-of-syria-made-in-the-usa/ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/world/middleeast/turkey-syria-kurds.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Might have been worth a try. But that would have reduced the profits of the arms industry, and we wouldn't want that. So the civilian refugees flee by the tens of thousands, hospitals are evacuated and closed, people die.

Cute meme. Are you telling me that the women and men I know who are offended by Trump's limp-dicked little-boy locker room boasting are soft-core porn-reading hypocrites? I'll explain that to them.


10/11/19 05:04 PM #9556    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Ah, yes. The literal version. Yup, ripping through Syria as quick & sure as a shark through bloody waters! Since we are 7th on Turkey’s list of economic trading partners, I expect Trump had no option but to make a quick threat to ruin Turkey’s economy & pull our troops out before the ensuing attack. But do you actually think threats of sanctions might have made a difference? And do we know what threats WERE made? Guesswork aside, like Giuliani’s Ukrainian connections but (seemingly) not Biden’s well-kept secrets, timely truths will eventually emerge. Or most likely be leaked. 

My little postscripted jokes are enjoyed by some. Others not so much. One of the things I miss the most with the PC crowd is the loss of our collective senses of humor. Pity. 

‘Sup with Tulsi Gabbard? Does she actually suspect the DNC is rigging the election yet again? Crazy broad. Unfortunately, I really liked her & a lot of what she had to say. Oh, well. It might not matter anyway, what with HRC hinting at a comeback. Now THAT would be funny! 

And what about that pesky author (Clinton Cash) Pete Schweitzer writing his piece in the NYT re Joe & Hunter? 


10/11/19 06:59 PM #9557    

 

Jack Mallory

Sorry about my PC lack of humor. At 14 I might have gotten a guilty chuckle out of grab-em by the pussy jokes, but I grew up. I don't think I would have laughed at remarks about "bleeding by the whatever" or references to women as "big, fat, pigs" after I got out of my teens, either, but your non-PC sense of humor may be different. Some wonderful women, BCC grads among them, taught me better. 

In case any of Trump's amusing remarks about women aren't common knowledge, you can refresh your memory here: 

https://theweek.com/articles/655770/61-things-donald-trump-said-about-women

I do occasionally manage to muster up a grin, however.


10/11/19 09:24 PM #9558    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

As we have heard the public is shifting on Impeaching Trump. Here is a recent analysis: Love, Joanie

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/11/trump-impeachment-polls-show-public-opinion-shift-since-inquiry-began/3933117002/

 


10/11/19 09:31 PM #9559    

 

Jack Mallory

And as long as we're on the topic of wonderful women, two in today's news:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/us/jane-fonda-arrested.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

And:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marie-yovanovitch-trump-ukraine-rudy-giuliani-congress-898146/

 

​


10/11/19 10:20 PM #9560    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

 

And yet who DID buy all those copies of “50 Shades of Grey”? Must have been men..

Gosh I hope my last little photo didn’t insult kitty cats & bald men who wear wigs. That may include an enormous number of classmates & their pets. How insensitive of me. 

Speaking of pets, big thanks to those classmates (you know who you are) who continue to send sweet sentiments regarding the loss of my pooch, Gibby. How nice is that? REALLY appreciate it. And thanks, too, for the many behind the scenes congrats & kudos to the Mystics’ for their huge win yesterday. Here is a photo of my niece carrying the trophy. Didn’t have to prompt THAT 5-star smile! 

 


10/12/19 03:40 AM #9561    

 

Joan Ruggles (Young)

Actions not words Nori. They are a lot more damaging. 

 


10/12/19 07:20 AM #9562    

 

Jack Mallory

Don't worry, Nora, we know there's a difference between kitty cat jokes and "pussy jokes." Some of us just don't think they're both funny. 

*********

Meanwhile, in the ever-convoluted and contradictory world of Trumpian policy:

But yesterday (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/world/middleeast/trump-saudi-arabia-iran-troops.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share)

"WASHINGTON — The United States is sending about 3,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia in the latest military response by the Trump administration after it accused Iran of attacks last month on Saudi oil facilities, the Pentagon said on Friday . . . 

". . . since May, Mr. Esper said the Pentagon has deployed about 14,000 additional forces to the gulf region. That includes airborne early warning aircraft
, maritime patrol planes, Patriot air and missile defense batteries, B-52 bombers, a carrier strike group, armed Reaper drones and other engineering and support personnel."
 

Trump believes the nearly $90 billion dollars of military equipment the US has provided the Saudis over the last 10 years are justified because, unlike the Kurds, the Saudis were there with us at Normandy. He remembers the scene in Saving Private Ryan when they charged off the LSTs on their camels, burnooses flying in the wind. 
 

And because we either have to laugh with the real news (even we PC humor-impaired) or abandon all hope, it's worth noting that one of Giuliani's Russian-born connections owns a club called Mafia Rave. The other heads a business called Fraud Guarantee. No, not making THIS shit up. 


10/12/19 07:50 AM #9563    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Hmm. Really, Joan? You mean actions really DO  speak louder than words? Like the Nats (yay Sánchez!) winning last night & not just making predictions? Like staging a political impeachment inquiry vs. infusing fairness in the process by having a House vote on it? Like anti-Trump protestors in Minnesota throwing rocks at cops (& their horses) & burning MAGA hats & not just peacefully carrying signs? You mean Trump displaying military power & not just making verbal threats? You mean Clinton, Weinstein, Epstein, Cosby raping women & not just ‘locker-rooming’ with the guys? You mean debating whether serial murderers should be punished by lethal injection but actually choosing to eradicate infants by injection? Or using the N word as opposed to wearing black face on Halloween? Or calling someone an illegal alien & being fined $250,000.00 for it? Kinda like that stuff? 


10/12/19 09:35 AM #9564    

 

Jack Mallory

"Trump displaying military power & not just making verbal threats?"

Could you explain, in a way that might satisfy grieving families in the US and overseas, the accomplished, measurable benefits of this display of military power? With evidence, of course.

 

 

 

 


10/12/19 10:10 AM #9565    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Let’s see. A couple come to mind: Two years ago, Trump’s air attack in response to Assad’s use of chemical weaponry. Today’s deployment of troops to Saudi Arabia in answer to Iran’s attack on the kingdom’s oil plant. Actions. Not words. Facts. In my view, the rest of your request would be conjecture, resting on subjective “spin” & open to interpretation. Perhaps you can eloquently satisfy grieving parents better than I, Jack? Feel free..

 


10/12/19 11:06 AM #9566    

 

Jack Mallory

No, feel free, Nora. Go ahead, conjecture, as we all do, based on facts as you know them. All our opinions and conclusions are, or should be, fact-based. Grounded in reality, with the evidence for that view of reality made clear.

Otherwise, "displaying military power" and other euphemisms become flat, opaque stones that hide the bodies, pieces of bodies, or the bodies so atomized that pieces becomes a meaningless word. 

I don't pretend to be able to speak comfortingly to the parents of the dead.


10/12/19 11:49 AM #9567    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

That’s the point: none of us can pretend to assure families that bad things can’t result. But that doesn’t mean that we stop reacting to bad things with action as opposed to empty rhetoric. IOW, use of deadly force in lieu of empty (red line?) rhetoric. Committing a thousand troops is potent. Economic pressure, particularly when low impact, not so much. I’ll take political damage over neglecting to act, any day. Most days, any way. We’ve come a long way in message: nation building is not trending and America is a force to be reckoned with. 

 

 

 

 


10/12/19 02:44 PM #9568    

 

Jack Mallory

There's another one: "Use of deadly force." 

Realistic translation: the use of high explosives, napalm, white phosphorus, bullets, bayonets, whatever comes to hand--or just hands--to dismember, disembowel, blind, burn, or otherwise kill and maim people. Enemies, friends, civilians, young, old, unborn, male, female, good, bad or just plain human, like us. And the obliteration of their homes, hospitals, jobs, churches, schools and all the other places humans live their lives.

And don't even get me started on "potent"!

Everytime we speak of war we should force ourselves, and our politicians and generals, to use the words that express the truth. 

If I had any interest in a tombstone, it would be graven with Hemingway's words: "Never think that war, no matter how necessary nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry, and ask the dead."
 

50 years ago, I was a 23 year old Army captain in Vietnam. What in the hell were they thinking?


10/12/19 04:06 PM #9569    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Do you find validity in the logic that up until now, it’s been preferable to fight enemies across the oceans as opposed to wars being fought on US soil? Whether that view is applicable today or not, the man you find so repugnant is against staying in these long fought wars, none of which he helped orchestrate. McCain, Graham, Carter, both Bushes, Obama, Reagan, both Clintons & Biden all had greater hands in creating today’s world frictions than Trump ever has. You can believe it’s because of his investments, his view of past failures, his staff, his politics, his campaign promises but it looks like he’s your man if you want a president who ‘wants out’. 


10/12/19 05:11 PM #9570    

 

Jack Mallory

"preferable to fight enemies across the oceans as opposed to wars being fought on US soil?"

This is a totally false dichotomy. The question shouldn't be whether wars should be fought here or there, the question is whether they should be fought at all. Fighting unjustified wars in Vietnam or Iraq, for example, isn't preferable to fighting them in the US. The wars were unjustified regardless of where they were fought. Because unjustified wars are fought outside the US simply means the dead are overwhelmingly not American. But the deaths of those Vietnamese and Iraqis was totally unjustified, and on our moral shoulders. 

 

A President who wants out? 

If you didn't see it the first time:

"WASHINGTON — The United States is sending about 3,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia in the latest military response by the Trump administration after it accused Iran of attacks last month on Saudi oil facilities, the Pentagon said on Friday . . . 

". . . since May, Mr. Esper said the Pentagon has deployed about 14,000 additional forces to the gulf region. That includes airborne early warning aircraft
, maritime patrol planes, Patriot air and missile defense batteries, B-52 bombers, a carrier strike group, armed Reaper drones and other engineering and support personnel."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/world/middleeast/trump-saudi-arabia-iran-troops.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Johnson told us he wouldn't send American boys thousands of miles to fight foreign wars. We shouldn't have trusted him, and I'll be damned if I'll trust the lying, policy shifting inhabitant of the White House today. And damned if I know why you do.

 


10/12/19 05:30 PM #9571    

 

Jay Shackford

Impeached by the Perfect Call

Nori – Congrats to your niece, Emma, and the Mystics.  She’s very attractive and has a great job.  

On a more combative topic, I will grudgingly admit that Nori was justified in questioning my earlier post.  The second phrase of my opening paragraph, as Nori so noted, failed line up perfectly with the ending. In my quest to write a clever lede, or as Trump might say “perfect” opening, my left-leaning thoughts got the better of me and I wrote something that didn’t quite match what I intended to say.  

Let me clarify.  I did indeed rejoice the Nats 10th inning win.  That was a great comeback – one that will be remembered for years. Last night’s one-hitter wasn’t bad either.  Go Nats!!!

But to be truthful, baseball and the ongoing and never-ending Trump scandal mix about as well as oil and water.  In this case, the Nationals and baseball represent the sparkling fresh water necessary to sustain life; the Trump scandal is that oily grime that coated the Gulf of Mexico and its coast following BP’s Deepwater Horizon blowout several years ago.  Or, as Michael Cohen says, “everything Trump touches dies.”

To be perfectly honest, let’s say I am greatly relieved and encouraged that the House is moving forward with its impeachment inquiry.  The faster we impeach and remove Trump from office the better.  The guy is a train wreck – reckless, dangerous and un-American to the core.  But I’ve said all that before.  

But this little exchange did give me an idea for my next t-shirt promotion – “Impeached by the Perfect Call.”

Joanie – I, too, am impressed by your artistic talents, and I apologize for not making it to your showing in Maryland in August.  I got sidelined in late summer for about three weeks with a bug I caught coming back from the West Coast.  But Nina and I enjoyed viewing your website.  I promise you I will make it to your next exhibit.  

Nori – Johnny and Kitty Adams make a great couple.  They started dating in high school and have been married for more than 50 years.  Johnny, Dean Scalvounos (not sure about the spelling either) and a kid named Dick Cass were my best friends and teammates in 6th and 7th grades.  John and Dean were a year ahead.  We all played for Sportsman, a sporting goods store that sponsored our American Legion team.  The store was on Wisconsin Ave. about three blocks my house.  I played third, Johnny short, Dick was our catcher and Dean played centerfield.  

Dean was an amazing player – a very mature 12-year old Greek kid and a natural athlete who could hit the ball a country mile.  Joe Branzel, who was a scout for the old Washington Senators and later the Minnesota Twins (Branzel, along with a couple of DC cops, also coached my 8th and 9th grade football teams at Jelliff Boys Club in Georgetown), started scouting Dean when he was playing as a freshman at Bullis Prep, where Dean coached for years after college. Dean’s parents owned a commercial laundry that did business with all the major restaurants and numerous hotels in DC.  Dean’s parents were good friends with the Greek owner of Blackies House of Beef – remember that joint. Dean was the only kid to go to school every morning with starched underwear.  Sorry Dean, but I couldn’t resist adding a little color to this story.  

The first time I saw Dean play during tryouts for Sportsman, I was blown away, “This guy plays like Mickey Mantle! He’s a sure bet to make the pros– he could hit, throw, field and run, and had the perfect body and attitude (confident but not cocky).”  He also was a super good friend and fun to be around.  He was so much better than anyone else in the league it was ridiculous.  Dean’s homers would fly into a stand of trees in deep left or center never to be found. (No fences on our fields back then.)  

When Dean entered Bullis Prep as a 9th grader, he played with the prep football and baseball teams as a freshman – a 15-year-old playing with kids 18 and 19.  He was that good.   Back then Bullis and a few other prep schools recruited high school athletes who had pending scholarships with major schools but needed a year of prep school to pull up their grades.  The Bullis Prep team played the Navy Plebes, the freshman team at Maryland and other prep and freshman teams of major schools in the area.  

We used to hang out together during the summer months at Bethesda Rec Center over by Dean’s house in Somerset, where Mike Trainer – another BCC grad, believe 1959 – ran the recreational program. Mike was a classy, very competitive guy who went on to law school and then became the manager for boxer Sugar Ray Leonard –an Olympic boxing champion in 1976, one of the best middle-weight boxers of all time and the first boxer ever to earn more than $100 million during his career.  

Interestingly, Mike Trainer raised $21,000 from 24 friends (most of them BCC grads, Dr. Carl McCarthee, Ricky Sullivan, ’64 Mike Windsor, just to name a few) following the 1976 Olympic games to underwrite the beginning of Sugar Ray’s professional career.  After I moved back to DC, I opened the Washington Post one morning to see a full-page ad purchased by Sugar Ray thanking by name each of his 24 sponsors.  Classy act.  Remember, back in those days, boxing was ruled by the Mob.  By underwriting Sugar Ray’s training costs for his first couple of fights, Trainer was able to keep Sugar Ray mob-free.  This allowed Sugar Ray to have a great career and retire as a very wealthy guy.  Remember those classic Coke or Pepsi ads performed by Sugar Ray’s young son, including the runway ad with the Mean Joe Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers.     

Hey, I’m on a memory roll. Let me tell you about our catcher, Dick Cass, whose dad was an officer in the Coast Guard and was transferred to California as we were going into 8th grade.  Dick was a solid athlete and the smartest of all of us. Rather than moving to California for a couple of years and then moving again before graduating from high school, he entered a prep school in Pennsylvania – believe it was Mercersburg, PA prep and then went to Yale for undergraduate and law school.  That’s when I lost track of Dick.  Years later, when the Ravens won the Super Bowl, I saw someone on the podium during the victory celebration who looked familiar and discovered that Dick Cass was President of the Baltimore Ravens.  Shortly later, the Post ran a profile piece on Dick, mentioning that he spent part of his youth in the Bethesda area. 

That’s it for now from memory lane.  Bests everyone.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


10/12/19 07:17 PM #9572    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Hi Jay,

thanks for those nice comments about my art website and I would love you to go to my next show when I have one. Thank you. Also, I agree completely with your take on Trump. I find him really dangerous to our democratic way of life. I am thankful that the courts are checking him and that Congress is doing oversight regarding the Impeachment inquiry.More and more Americans are agreeing that this is the right course. Love, Joanie.


10/13/19 09:27 AM #9573    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/anne-applebaum-us-foreign-policy-is-for-sale-who-else-is-buying.html

This article explains what is going on regarding our foreign policy in the Trump Administration. For anyone worried about corruption, this should really be an eye opener. Love, Joanie


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