Rachel Maddow can now be called executive producer, for she last night showed her first documentary film,   From Russia with Lev .  The   follow-on program provided further details .  If you missed it, quickly record a replay, today, Saturday, 2PM, MSNBC.  This film should not be confused with a   2016 religious book with the same title . Think back to those days when Donald Trump was president, and he tried to extort new president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, leading to Trump's impeachment.  He was trying to taint Joe Biden through his son Hunter to eliminate Joe from running against him in 2020. If you read through the entirety of a lengthy  Wikipedia  treatment of this  Trump-Ukraine scandal , light mention is made of Lev Parnas ( left of Trump ) and Igor Fruman ( extreme left ) as associates of Rudy Giuliani.  Well, the documentary is all about the role of Parnas.  How the story went is in part shocking, yet revealing, about the do...

The highlight of Iam Tongi's crowning as the 2023 American Idol last night was his performance with James Blunt, singing Blunt's  Monsters  together.  Blunt wrote the song when his father Charles was battling stage four chronic kidney disease and awaiting a donor.  Tragic, but Iam's father Rodney passed away with stage four kidney disease less than two years ago.   James' father, though, did find a donor in 2020, and lives on . Also yesterday, Michael Block, a club pro, and only one of 20 to make the cut to play the weekend, stole the show with his hole in one on the 15th hole.   Watch his shot here .  He had to finish within the top 15 to enable him to play in the 2024 Valhalla PGA Championship, and one swing qualified him to finish tied for 15.  Bruce Koepka is the first "deserter" to win a major.  These are those who joined the  LIV Invitational Series  funded by Saudi Arabia, and the ones you don't see on TV anymore. T...

Yesterday I declared nothing much was happening around the world worthy of my time.  Today, okay, that was a gross minimization of the reality.  The world population will reach 8 billion in just about a year.  All kinds of things are occurring.   For example, what about the shock that none of the defendants ( whittled down to worst four ) were convicted of the planned kidnap, trial and possible murder of  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer !  Why? Overly aggressive FBI informants. Michigan law  since 1931 provides for a mandatory life sentence for conspiracy to commit murder. Perhaps a plot is not a conspiracy, but whatever, the defense did well.  Apparently this is indeed a free country and you can say almost anything you want. The far right has stoked potential violence to a new normal. How ballsy of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson walking around the ruins of Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  Wait a minute, isn't he a...

On February 1 I posted on  WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT UKRAINE?   To quote: There is too much history linked to Ukraine that the thought of their joining the European Union deeply agitates Vladimir Putin. There all kinds of reason why Putin is focused on Ukraine.  Here is one that probably makes the most sense. The current issue of  TIME  magazine has a rather lengthy article by Simon Shuster with a sub-theme,  GREAT WARS SOMETIMES START OVER SMALL OFFENSES .  I can't link you to it because you're not a subscriber.  World War I, for example, was triggered when Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. The story begins in 2004 when Daria Medvedchuk was born in Ukraine.  Her father, Victor, asked a close friend, Vladimir Putin, to christen her in the Orthodox tradition they shared.  The families are close, for they holiday together on the Black Sea and conduct business on the side. About  Viktor Medvedchuk:   Previously in 1...