Donald Trump, who campaigned for president criticizing President Obama for taking vacations, is now taking 17 days off after six hard months of playing golf at his country clubs.
President Trump, 2 weeks before leaving for a 17-day vacation: “I don’t think we should leave town unless we have a health insurance plan” pic.twitter.com/NqZ8bMhNf5
And, of course, this trip on the “way-back machine:”
Trump in Feb. 2015 blasting Obama: “Who wants to go on vacation when you’re president? You’re in the WH. You stay in your command center.” pic.twitter.com/6pvOoM4hBd
Variety is reporting that NBC has already picked up a second 13-episode season for the Will & Grace reboot.
Additionally, NBC has ordered 4 more episodes for the 2017-2018 season, bringing the total to 16 episodes.
The hotly-anticipated return to the small screen of the iconic series happens on September 28.
All original Will & Grace principals – Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally – are returning.
The original Will & Grace ran on NBC from 1998 to 2006, spanning over 200 episodes. An election year mini-reunion of the cast sparked much interest and led to the eventual revival.
Rumors are swirling that the series finale in 2006, which found Will and Grace growing apart, may be jettisoned as if it never happened.
Watch the official trailer for the new season below.
As Olympic (and current world champion) diver Tom Daley notes in the beginning of this video, diving and gymnastics use different sets of muscles, but Daley and Olympic Bronze medalist Nile Wilson find the common ground putting each other through the other’s paces.
I have to say, I expected to watch a few minutes of the clip, but was drawn in by how accomplished both athletes are in the other’s arena. Daley clearly had a lot of acro-experience for his diving, and Nile was fearless trying out some not-so-simple dives.
And, there is the fact that both are easy on the eyes 🙂
My dear friend Alex Rybeck, (uber-talented composer, music director, arranger) reminded me of the artful yet melancholy “Theme from Valley of the Dolls” recorded by a wistful Dionne Warwick back in 1968.
The spare, haunting arrangement coupled with Warwick’s elegantly pensive vocal has always struck me as a special kind of pop song.
Hitting #1 on the Record World Chart in March 1968, the song was the “B” side of Dionne’s million selling “I Say a Little Prayer”, which also became another million-seller for Dionne.
What I didn’t know was that the song was originally intended for Judy Garland, who was initially cast in the film Valley of the Dolls but subsequently fired.
I can definitely see Judy bringing her unmistakable vulnerability and poignancy to the tune.
They say the mark of a great song is how future generations can connect to it. In this Trumpian day and age, who hasn’t thought:
“Gotta get off, Gonna get, Have to get off from this ride.”
A day after Donald Trump signed into law a bill passed with massive bipartisan support in Congress that imposes new sanctions on Russia and curbs the president’s authority to lift them, Trump took to Twitter to complain about the “flawed” legislation.
Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that can’t even give us HCare!
In addition to imposting new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, the legislation impairs the president’s ability to lift any sanctions put in place by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election meddling.
Veteran Republican Sen. John McCain didn’t miss a beat responding to Trump, saying any blame for bad blood lies at the feet of Russian President Putin:
Our relationship w/ Russia is at dangerous low. You can thank Putin for attacking our democracy, invading neighbors & threatening our allies
Yes, attack Congress for poor relations w Russia instead of nation that hacked us. Putin must be pleased you joined the blame America crowd. https://t.co/Mw1k1VnUMP
Paging Gen. Kelly! He’s on the loose again! It’s CONGRESS that has roiled our relations with Russia? Not their brazen intrusion on ’16 race? https://t.co/q2rhWtABpU
A transcript of newly-elected President Trump’s first phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto shows Trump knew he’d painted himself into a corner campaigning on “The Wall” to be paid for by Mexico.
Trump was most concerned that the Mexican president continued to say his country would not be paying for any wall.
“You cannot say that to the press,” Trump said repeatedly, according to a transcript of the Jan. 27 call obtained by The Washington Post. Trump made clear that he realized the funding would have to come from other sources but threatened to cut off contact if Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto continued to make defiant statements.
The funding “will work out in the formula somehow,” Trump said, adding later that “it will come out in the wash, and that is okay.” But “if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”
Trump also told with the Mexican president that he won the state of New Hampshire (he didn’t) because “New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.”
That’s an American president denigrating a state to the head of a foreign nation.
The article goes on to chronicle Trump’s heated conversation with Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a previous agreement by the U.S. to accept 1,250 economic refugees.
“I hate taking these people,” Trump said. “I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people” — an apparent reference to U.S. dairy farms.
Turnbull tried to salvage the deal, noting that the detainees were economic refugees who had not been accused of crimes. He explained that they were being denied entry into Australia because of a policy aimed at discouraging human smuggling.
“There is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal,” Turnbull said. “You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.”
Trump only became angrier, saying the refugees could “become the Boston bomber in five years.”
“I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made,” Trump said. “As far as I am concerned, that is enough, Malcolm. I have had it.”
In Feb, when @gregpmiller & I reported tense Trump-Turnbull call, Trump called it “FAKE” & a lie. Greg got transcript showing it’s very real https://t.co/wLcCUzpgNu
The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows 61% of voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing in office, that’s in contrast to 33% who approve of Trump’s performance.
These are the Trumpster’s lowest approval ratings in the Quinnipiac poll since his inauguration.
This represents a sharp drop from June’s 40% approval rating in this same poll.
More results:
• 71% don’t think Trump is “level headed”
• 62% don’t think he is “honest”
• 63% say he does not have good leadership skills
• 59% say he does not care about average Americans
During an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump said the Boy Scouts called him to say his speech at last week’s Jamboree was “the greatest speech that was ever made to them.”
The Boy Scouts have countered saying they know of no such phone call being made.
Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday, “I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful.” Politico published the transcript of the interview.
“We are unaware of any such call,” the Boy Scouts responded in a statement. It specified that neither of the organization’s two top leaders — President Randall Stephenson and Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh — had placed such a call.
The White House had no immediate response to the Boy Scouts’ denial.
Surbaugh apologized last week to members of the scouting community who were offended by the political rhetoric in Trump’s July 24 speech in West Virginia.
Other U.S. presidents have delivered nonpolitical speeches at past jamborees. To the dismay of many parents and former scouts, Trump promoted his political agenda and derided his rivals, inducing some of the scouts in attendance to boo at the mention of former President Barack Obama.
“I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree,” Surbaugh said. “That was never our intent.”
During the Boy Scouts section of the interview, Trump grew irritated that a reporter in the room referred to the speech as getting “mixed” reception.
“There was no mix there,” Trump said. “That was a standing ovation from the time I walked out to the time I left, and for five minutes after I had already gone. There was no mix.”
In related news, CBS reports that Trump’s recent claim that Mexican President Nieto called him to congratulate him on such a great job on border control is false.
As Mr. Trump welcomed his new Chief of Staff John Kelly to the Cabinet table on Monday, Mr. Trump took time to applaud the work Kelly had done during his time leading the Department of Homeland Security. “At Homeland, what he has done has been nothing short of miraculous,” Mr. Trump said of Kelly.
He went on, saying, “As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and they’re close to 80 percent stoppage. And even the president of Mexico called me — they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”
But Nieto denies that ever happened. In a statement released by the Mexican Foreign Ministry, Nieto “has not recently spoken to President Donald Trump over the telephone.”
President Trump signed the bipartisan sanctions legislation passed in Congress today, but in doing so issued a signing statement explaining his thoughts on the bill.
Last week, Trump’s press secretary announced, “President Donald J. Trump read early drafts of the bill and negotiated regarding critical elements of it. He has now reviewed the final version and, based on its responsiveness to his negotiations, approves the bill and intends to sign it.”
But today, Trump says the legislation is “flawed.”
It’s worth noting the president really didn’t have a choice in signing the bill. The legislation was passed with a veto-proof bipartisan majority. Any veto would have easily been overridden, causing the Trump administration even further embarrassment.
He also offered remarks to reporters in a separate statement which, of course, takes a dig at the GOP-controlled Congress: “Congress could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking.”
And then there’s the last line: “I built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars. That is a big part of the reason I was elected. As President, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress.”
“The strangest thing about it is how comfortable and natural everybody has been with the whole thing. We did this having not seen each other for 10 years and then decided one day to show up to work and got right back to it. Here we are. That’s a pretty bizarre thing.” – Will & Grace creator Max Mutchnick to Entertainment Weekly on the reboot of the iconic sitcom which returns September 28.
