Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Trump trashes Obama over a "certain section of Ukraine;" Obama strikes back!


Satire from Ted Block 

AROUND THE BLOCK

News with a Twist

Trump claims Crimea was taken from Obama


In an unprecedented move by a former president, Obama responds

  

In his bizarre 68-minute solo press conference following the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France, President Trump laid into former President Barak Obama, a heretofore no-no on foreign soil.

Between hawking his money-losing Doral Resort as the site of the next G7 meeting (“…it’s five minutes from the airport; it has the largest ballrooms; each country could have its own villa – we call them bungalows; it’s very large so there’s plenty of parking…") and claiming that “Melania has gotten to know Kim Jong Un very well” when, in fact, the two had never met, Trump said Obama was "outsmarted" by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Stating that there were a “lot of bad things” that happened between Obama and Putin, Trump focused on Russia's annexation of Crimea.

“And the other [reason] was in Ukraine, having to do with a certain section of Ukraine that you know very well (Note: clearly, Trump did not know the name of this "certain section of Ukraine" until prompted later in a reporter's follow-up question), where it was sort of taken away from President Obama,” Trump declared. “Not taken away from President Trump, taken away from President Obama. President Obama was not happy that this happened because it was embarrassing to him, right? It was very embarrassing to him.”

He continued: “And he wanted Russia to be out of the—what was called the G8. That was his determination. He was outsmarted by Putin. He was outsmarted. President Putin outsmarted President Obama. And I can understand how President Obama would feel. He wasn’t happy. And they’re not in for that reason.”

When asked by a reporter why he was for repeating his baseless claim that Putin was pushed out of the then-G8 for embarrassing Obama, noting that the other countries said they booted Russia because of its illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea, Trump snapped back, “I know you like President Obama. If it was during my term, I would say sorry, folks, I made a mistake.”

“President Obama was pure and simply outsmarted,” Trump concluded. “They took Crimea during his term. That was not a good thing. It could have been stopped with the right… whatever. It could have been stopped. But President Obama was unable to stop it and it’s too bad.”

And then this: After two and a half years of unfounded and inappropriate criticism, former president Obama finally struck back.


In an unprecedented move, Obama issued the following statement:

I watched with great interest President Trump’s news conference at the G7 yesterday and I wanted to set the record straight on one thing – the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea.
 President Trump said, "…it could have been stopped with the right ‘whatever.’"
 Let me make something perfectly clear. My advisors presented me with several “whatevers.” While, for national security reasons I will not go into specific detail on the various options, I can say this: there were three very specific options:  
WHATever, WhatEVER and WhatEVVERRR? 
In the end we determined that each of the options ran the risk of escalating the crisis into a shooting war so, in concert with our six other allies in the former G8, we determined that the best way to punish Russia and President Putin for the egregious aggression was to impose economic sanctions on Russia and remove them from the G8.
One last thing, and this is specifically for President Trump: egregious means outstandingly bad; shocking, appalling, horrific, horrifying, horrible, terrible, awful, dreadful, grievous, gross, ghastly, hideous, horrendous, frightful, atrocious, abominable, abhorrent, outrageous. 
An example of the use of the word “egregious” in a sentence would be, “President Trump’s performance at the G7 meeting was egregious.” 

Monday, August 26, 2019

Trump: G7; Mental Health and the Whiplash Effect



Satire from Ted Block 

AROUND THE BLOCK

News with a Twist

Whiplash Edition

Trump contradictory statements hastens whiplash warning 

Mental health called into question;
ATB calls in "expert for exclusive diagnosis

 
Snidely "Donald" Whiplash 

Sunday and Monday were extremely busy days at Around the Block as we tried to follow the Group of 7 Summit (or, as Trump calls it the G8-1, as his own +1, Vladimir Putin wasn't invited, -- "it's Obama's fault").

We began to seriously question not only the veracity of Donald Trump, but his mental health. And, on top of all that, we had to take a time-out for a trip to the Delray Beach “Docs ‘R Us” urgent care in the Del Boca Rio Vista Lakes Center (don’t believe those advertised 5-minute wait times, my fellow Delray Beachers) to get some relief from the pulled muscles in my neck caused by my whiplash from, you guessed it, Trump's performance at the G7.

But, enough about me. Let’s talk about Trump.

The day started out in normal fashion with Trump sending, according to the Times, deeply contradictory signals about his trade war with China on Sunday, ending the day by escalating his threats of higher tariffs even as he remained isolated from fellow world leaders on a strategy that has rattled the global economy.”

A day after defending his authority to order American companies out of China, he started Sunday by conceding that he was having “second thoughts” about a new round of levies on Chinese goods. Within hours, he abruptly reversed himself again, saying that he only regretted not raising tariffs even higher.

Then, when questioned about his defense of his order to demand American companies out of China, he said he wasn’t going to do that after all.

Then, after calling Chinese President Xi (along with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell) an enemy of America saying, “What they’ve (China) done is outrageous, that presidents and administrations allowed them to get away with taking hundreds of billions of dollars out every year,” he lauded Xi, praising him as a "great leader" for understanding "how life works." Trump went on to say that top Chinese officials had called to “get back to the table."

Beijing did not confirm any weekend phone calls between its trade representatives and U.S. officials, and in regular remarks to reporters, a Chinese Foreign Ministry representative said he was unaware of any such phone conversations.

OK, that settles the veracity issue, so back to whiplash and mental health. 

In an apparent whiplash breakthrough, Trump finally became aware of the effect of his contradictory statements, and did not reverse himself on Fed Chair Powell’s status as an American enemy. The head of the Federal Reserve is, at this writing, still an enemy of the people.

With regard to no flip-flop on Chairman Powell, Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, speaking to reporters behind a curtain in order to continue to hide her face from public view, said about the President's non-reversal, "the President is aware of the fact that some of you are claiming his statements may cause whiplash sending Americans to seek medical attention. In that regard, and due to the high cost of medical care in the United States which Democrats will not address, Donald J. Trump has pledged not to issue any further contradictory statements until Obamacare is repealed and replaced by the Republican healthcare plan.”

To this point there is no Republican healthcare plan so the hope is that there will be no more Trump flip-flops for a long, long time.

Despite that, the White House press corps over-under for when the President will contradict his pledge not to issue a contradictory statement is six hours.

Now, on a more serious note…

We mentioned at the top of this column that we also have worries about the President’s mental health. As a public service, and in order to help allay further concerns, we have consulted with one of the foremost American physicians and the doctor who knows Donald Trump better than any other, his own personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein.



Readers of Around the Block will remember that ATB has reached out to Dr. Bornstein in the past, most recently after Trump was upset about the perceived slights to him due to reporting of the size of the Women’s March On Washington in 2017. 

At that time, Dr. Bornstein diagnosis was, “the President has a condition known as 'extreme pre-dawn supererogatory Twitter syndrome' where sending too many tweets before 7am leads to tweeting things the sender doesn't really mean or believe."

As such Dr. Bornstein recommended that Trump limit his tweets to no more than one between 3am and 7am and, to avoid the occurrence of the more common "extreme prosaic supererogatory Twitter syndrome,” no more than three per hour thereafter.

With that as background, here is a transcript of our talk with Dr. Bornstein about Trump, contradictory statements and whiplash. 
Around the Block: Thank you, Dr. Bornstein for joining us again.
Dr. Harold Bornstein: My pleasure. As you know given my own neuroses, being out of the news for so long has been trying on me, so thanks for getting me back in the public eye where I should be.
 ATB: Well, let’s get to it. Unlike the last time we talked, although he is still a “tweet machine” the current situation with Donald Trump is about his contradictory statements and the whiplash effect those statements are having on the American public.
 HB: First, while I appreciate your use of the common term “whiplash effect,” if I may correct you – the appropriate medical term is “whipsaw effect.” Whiplash only occurs when there is physical trauma, like a car accident; “whipsaw,” on the other hand, is caused when the trauma is the result of aural stimulus, like when Donald talks. It’s a shame that so many people use the terms interchangeably and incorrectly.
 ATB: Thank you for the explanation; we stand corrected.
 HB: Now to the case at hand. Donald’s situation is a symptom of psychopathic sociopaths who live in narcissistic bubbles. While some people, when caught in a misstatement or more precisely, a lie, will double-down – that is, re-emphasize the lie with an even bigger one; we call that “Double-Down Disorder.” Donald has what we like to call in the psychiatric world, “Triple-Down Disorder.”
 ATB: Triple-Down Disorder? I’ve never heard of that before.
 HB: Precisely. That’s because it is extremely rare and only occurs with psychopathic sociopaths who live in narcissistic bubbles. That disease is so rare in fact, that there have been less than 10 people in history who have suffered from it, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Attila the Hun, Marie Antoinette and King George III (they didn’t call him the “Mad King” for nothing), among others.
Now, what is the effect of Triple-Down Disorder?
Triple-Down Syndrome, unlike Double-Down Disorder is when someone is caught in an imprudent statement, realizes the error of their ways, takes the statement back and then within a short period of time, goes back to the original declaration with even greater impunity. It is so rare, that I feel extremely privileged to be one of the only doctors living today who has seen and diagnosed it.
 ATB: And, is there any treatment or cure.
 HB: In my opinion, there is no cure or treatment for this – facts are facts: Donald Trump is a psychopathic sociopath living in a narcissistic bubble. That cannot be fixed. The only solution I see is to eliminate his power and his soapbox. And that, unfortunately can only be done by the American Congress through impeachment or censure, his Cabinet through the 25th Amendment, or the American people in the next election. By the way, you probably didn't know this, but I'm also a social studies teacher in my spare time. 
ATB: Sad but true. Thank you, Dr. Bornstein, for your expertise and your frank prognosis. But one final question regarding the 25th Amendment. Is Trump's illness enough to allow the Cabinet to invoke it?
HB: In my opinion Donald's mental illness has incapacitated him to such a degree, he is incapable of doing his job responsibly. And I'll testify to that.


Friday, August 23, 2019

***NEW FEATURE*** AROUND THE BLOCK PLAYS CLASSIC GAME SHOWS


Satire from Ted Block 

AROUND THE BLOCK

Plays Classic Game Shows

“What’s My Line”: 

ATB Edition


Today, we take a completely new tack at Around the Block. Introducing Around the Block – Plays Classic Game Shows. And, for for our first classic game show we offer the popular 1950’s era CBS panel show What’s My Line, which was hosted by the pioneering TV newscaster, John Charles Daly.

L to R: Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, John Charles Daly
Unfortunately, since Mr. Daly, along with regular panelists Arlene Frances, Dorothy Kilgallen and Bennett Cerf have all passed away and this is a column not an actual TV show, we’ll have to play What’s My Line: ATB Edition with a slightly different set of rules: 
a) Unlike the TV panelists, you won’t be blindfolded so the guest’s face will be revealed to you; and
b) We’ll start off with a multiple-choice question to warm you up and help you identify the guest. If you correctly answer the multiple-choice question you can go on to the next step where the guest will give you clues to help in the identification. 
Now remember, unlike John Charles Daly, I’m not there with you so I’m counting on you – no cheating!

With those rules in mind – it’s time to play What’s My Line: ATB Edition!!

WHO AM I?
Part 1: Multiple Choice Question 
  1. I’m the “before” model for the “As Seen on TV” Under-Eye Bag Removal Cream. 
  2. I played Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the Tucson Ridiculous Theatrical Company's production of Wicked. 
  3. I am Barron Trump's evil Nanny.
  4. Could be all of the above or none of the above.
Ok, you have 30-seconds…….

And the answer is #4 “Could be all of the above or none of the above.” 

If you chose #4 you can now go on to the What’s My Line: ATB Edition traditional clue segment.
  1. While working for the Auto Club (AAA) in Tucson, Arizona, I was fired for filing false claims for travel and other expenses. Who am I?
  2. While working for an advertising agency in Arizona, I was fired for plagiarism. Who am I?
  3. That plagiarism included creating a client website in which I lifted, verbatim, material from the job at AAA from which I was fired. Who am I?
  4. I was arrested for driving under the influence twice and placed into a court-ordered treatment program. Who am I?
  5. As spokesperson for the Arizona attorney general’s office, I fielded press inquiries about a botched execution by the state by describing the condemned prisoner, who did not die for nearly two hours after being given a lethal injection, as “snoring” and the scene in the execution chamber as “quite peaceful.” Who am I?
  6. I was appointed to the combined roles as White House Press Secretary and Communications director nearly two months ago but, in that time, I have not held a single on-camera briefing with the media. Who am I?
Ok, you have 30 seconds…….
 
And the answer is Stephanie Grisham, who was promoted from Melania Trump’s spokesperson to White House Communications Director and Press Secretary on July 1.

Now in the TV What's My Line, after the guest's identity is revealed, Mr. Daly would spend a few minutes interviewing her. Since Mr. Daly is no longer with us, ATB will conduct the interview.
ATB: Now let me get this straight, you got this White House job despite your resume?
Grisham: They never asked for my resume.
ATB: Well, did they have any questions or ask about your background? 
Grisham: Not really, they just asked me if I'd like to work in the White House and if I had any questions for them. 
ATB: Did you have any questions?
Grisham: Actually, yes I had one question. I had just seen a production of the musical The Producers and I remembered a question that Max Bialystock asked, so I decided to ask that one. 
ATB: And the question was?
Grisham: Who do you have f**k to get a job around here?
ATB: You actually asked that?
Grisham: Yes, and guess what, the interviewer smiled and said, "Just wait, we have exactly the right person in mind."
ATB: And with that, you got the job? 
Grisham: Well, I'm sitting here aren't I?
Hope you enjoyed playing What’s My Line: ATB Editon. Now until next week, some closing thoughts: 
  • Based on her background and job performance to date, Stephanie Grisham could be the poster child for Donald Trump's claim, "I only hire the best people; I only have the best people."
  • Stephanie Grisham's reason for not having any on-camera briefings in the time she’s been White House Press Secretary is because she “doesn’t need to hold briefings because the president is so accessible to reporters himself.” 
    • Based on the last two weeks of Trump’s incoherent ramblings on the White House South Lawn, that strategy seems to be working out well.
  • Grisham replaced Sarah Huckabee “Colonel” Sanders as Press Secretary. So, the good news is we won’t have to see Ms. Sanders on TV anymore. 
  • Wait, what? Ms. “Colonel” Sanders just signed on to be a Fox New contributor? Does that mean we’ll still have to see her on TV? 
  • Not to worry. We watch MSNBC. And you know what MSNBC says: 
WE WATCH FOX NEWS 
SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO