Friday Quick Takes Well, it’s been a crazy week (as usual) in TrumpWorld and today’s Blast is going to be random commentary on some of the “Breaking News” we find ourselves inundated with day after day. Our Chief Executive’s Response to the Al Franken Sexual Misconduct While managing to say nothing about the Roy Moore imbroglio, “President” Locker-Room-Talk managed to Tweet about Al Franken, revealing as much about himself as his supposed “disgust” with Franken. Here’s the “President’s” tweet: @realDonaldTrump The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps? ..... 10:06 PM - Nov 16, 2017 Consider this: what kind of mind immediately begins thinking about “pictures 2,3,4,5 & 6?” Seriously, while misspelling "Frankenstein," the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief sounds like he wants to see those photographs, doesn’t he? Apparently he has amnesia about the 16 claims about his own alleged sexual misconduct, not to mention three cases of rape (see Chris Riotta in the November 16, 2017 Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-rape-sexual-assault-minor-wife-business-victims-roy-moore-713531). The sexual harassment/misconduct genie is out of the bottle and we will, undoubtedly, see more “Breaking News” on this front every day. Jared’s Faulty Memory? You may have noticed the story about the Senate Judiciary Committee requesting more documents from the Presidential In-Law-Advisor. According to CBS News (November 16, 2017): The top members on the Senate Judiciary Committee say that the documents that Jared Kushner's lawyer submitted to the panel are "incomplete." The senators said that the documents from Kushner's lawyer failed to include "several documents that are known to exist" concerning September 2016 email communications to Kushner about WikiLeaks. "Such documents should have been produced in response to the third request but were not. Likewise, other parties have produced documents concerning a "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite" which Mr. Kushner also forwarded. And still others have produced communications with Sergei Millian, copied to Mr. Kushner. Again, these do not appear in Mr. Kushner's production despite being responsive to the second request. You also have not produced any phone records that we presume exist and would relate to Mr. Kushner's communications regarding several requests," they wrote. Now, it might be natural for folks to assume Kushner is being evasive and trying to avoid revealing his connections to Russians during the 2016 Presidential campaign. However, while I’d be the last person to defend Jared, I’m guessing his highly-paid lawyers will present this defense. I think they will go to Daniel Golden’s ProPublica article from a year ago (November 16, 2016), which was focused on Kushner’s admission to Harvard (based on his father’s $2.5 gift to the University). Golden quoted an administrator from Jared’s high school. “There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,” a former official at The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, told me (Golden). “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.” Clearly, Jared is someone who simply doesn’t do his homework and his lawyers will contend: Jared’s dog ate it! It reminds me of the students I taught who would do no work for an entire quarter and then ask if there was something they could do for “extra credit" at the end of the marking period. I would point out that there was no way one could get “extra” credit when, in fact, you had not earned ANY credit! I’m pretty sure Jared’s going to find out that Bob Mueller feels the same way.
The Baseball MVP’s I know there’s a big TAX story out there but that can wait until tomorrow. I’m going to go to that “happy place” I love dearly: baseball. Last night the Baseball Writers of America Association announced the winners of their Most Valuable Player awards in the American and National Leagues. In the American League, five-foot-six, 165 pound Jose Altuve of the World Champion Houston Astros won. In the National League the six-foot-six, 245 pound Giancarlo Stanton won. (Altuve’s runner-up in the American League was my NY Yankee, Rookie-of-the-Year hometown hero, 6’7”, 282 lb. Aaron Judge). I include the sizes of these gentlemen because it puts, in very high relief, the beauty of baseball. While you occasionally have a freakishly small player in the NFL or NBA, that is hardly the case in baseball. The 2008 American League Most Valuable Player was Dustin Pedroia, a 5’9”, 180 pound Boston Red Sox second baseman (like Altuve). I’ve written before about the fact that the dimensions of a baseball field (90 feet between the bases, 60’6” from the pitcher's rubber to home plate) have never changed. In football, goal posts have been moved, hash marks are changed and the sport reacts to bigger, stronger, faster athletes. In basketball, the width of the foul lane increases and the insertion of the 3-point line has radically changed the sport. But baseball can produce a genuine “Mutt and Jeff” MVP selection like this year's. I know I’ve used this before but, reflecting on this year’s MVP’s, I have to, once again, quote the brilliant Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) in Field of Dreams: The one constant through all the years Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come. Only 87 days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training!
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