Today marks the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.   Russia currently controls 20% of Ukraine's territory. Nearly half a million have died, with 1.5 million wounded or missing. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is under heavy pressure, from the Trump administration, to cave-in.  Will he? This latest from  Truthout  on the Epstein files: Files relating to allegations of sexual abuse committed by President Donald Trump are being withheld or removed from the public database of files compiled by the Department of Justice (DOJ) relating to Jeffrey Epstein.    Some of these files are related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor. They include over 50 pages of an FBI interview with a woman who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor decades ago.   According to reporting from   NPR , the DOJ is withholding those files and others that feature Trump’s name from the searchable database of the Epstein files. Tonight...

On July 21, Netflix debuted a new documentary,  Sunday Best:  The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan .  I still remember growing up of watching the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights.  So, as last night was Sunday night, I watched this new production. This all began as a radio program, Summer Silver Theater, that first aired on CBS in 1932, then in 1941, hosted by Ed Sullivan. This was first 15-minute gossipy talk-and-interview shows of Jack Benny Irving Berlin, Florenz Ziegfeld, etc. When it returned in 1941, it was called the Ed Sullivan Variety on CBS. From 1943-1944 as Ed Sullivan Entertains, a variety show on CBS. Then in 1946 as Ed Sullivan's Pipelines, a 15-minute program on the Blue Network. Finally, television. Toast of the Town on 20June1948. This first program featured comedians Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, singer Monica Lewis and Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II previewing the score to their then-new show,  South Pacific . This Bro...

Last week I posted a two-part series on red wines.  On this nostalgic Tuesday, I will make it a five-part series with a visit I made in 2019 to France, where we tasted champagne and Bordeaux wine and cognac.  Parts 4 and 5 will be posted on subsequent Tuesdays. But first, a few newsworthy items. As my  blog expressed yesterday , President Donald Trump has transformed himself from dud to hero. Looks like that  fragile ceasefire for the Israel-USA vs Iran War is holding.   Lot of questions about where those 880 pounds of enriched uranium might be  to  future role on how the International Atomic Energy Agency can check on Iran  to  how long the ailing 85-year old Ayatollah can hang in there  to  a million others.  However, give Trump credit for solving this war in less than two weeks.  Israel still has that Gaza Strip problem, and there continues the Ukraine-Russia war, but the world today is in a safer place than yesterday. ...