Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, yesterday met Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.  Trump praised Orban as a great dictator, or something like that.    Orban said Trump indicated he won't give a penny to Ukraine .   Orban is not scheduled to meet with anyone in the Biden administration.  They are both poised to join the president's for life club, now led by Vladimir Putin, Jinping Xi and Kim Jong Un.  Actually, Viktor already is at their level. On 5August2019, a year before the previous U.S. presidential election, it was scarily reported on  how Trump might be scrutinizing Orban's playbook . Trump borrowed his immigration policy from Orban, who fanned anti-migrant sentiment to gain political power in 2010 to dismantle Hungarian democracy. Immigration is just a Trump's first step to establish an autocracy. Orban built a fence on the border with Serbia in 2015.  Donald has his wall. Orban used bogus corruption charges to sideline political opponents.  So did Trump, who

First, on the entertainment front, the favorites did well at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last night.   You did not miss it, for to watch, you had to stream Netflix.   Here, view the results .  Yes, the whole thing, beginning with that Red Carpet walk.  Meaning, 8 hours and 21 minutes.   Not being on network television, a lot of F words, and some winners came up drunk. The favorites all won, especially  Oppenheimer . Barbra Streisand won the Life Achievement award.   Just this , less than 10 minutes. As I don't feel particularly spiritual today, will skip on to something I recently saw on Music Choice, Elaine Paige.  Was the original Grizabella who sang  Memories  from  Cats .  It was 1981 in the West End.  In 1998 she played that role in the movie.  Mind you,  Rotten Tomatoes  reviewers gave it an embarrassing 20% rating.  On the other hand, the audience bestowed 80%, and I follow them more than reviewers.   There was a second  Cats,  in 2019.  Again,  Rotten Tomatoes  reviewers

The USA has had 46 presidents.  Presidents Day was first established in 1879 as Washington's Birthday.   Back then there were only three other federal bank holidays:  Christmas, New Year's, Independence. So February 22 was added as the fourth. George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, 292 years ago.   Well, not quite, for we were then on the Julian calendar, and he came on February 11.   The Gregorian calendar--to more accurately mark the solar year--was adopted in 1752, adding 11 days. I looked back to 2022 and all the way up to 2034, and  none of these Mondays were and will be on February 22 .   With all that history, the  federal government still calls this day Washington's Birthday . Congress passed the  Uniform Monday Holiday Act  in 1968, which officially took effect in 1971, shifting the fixed date of February 22 to the third Monday of February.   Lincoln's Birthday had been celebrated by some states on February 12, so they just combined the two presidents

I readied another Trump piece for today, but I'm getting tired of him.  Yesterday featured the final weekend of the National Football League and the Golden Globes, while today we have the NCAA football championship, so I'll instead report on them. There was a time before the pandemic when I went to films virtually every Saturday, and sometimes saw two.  This past year I went out only once for  Barbenheimer .  They both did well at the Golden Globes last night: Barbie  got 9 nominations and  Oppenheimer  8. O  beat  B,  winning the Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director for Christopher Nolan, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey, Jr., and Best Score for Ludwig Goransson. Here is what I said on July 23rd after seeing both : Christopher Nolan was nominated in 2017 for   Dunkirk , and four other times for lower categories.  Best Film?  Best Director?  Should get both nominations, but winning?  Maybe, and even perhaps both. However, the film is mo