1/. We know he's planning to sabotage the midterms, but thankfully he's probably going to screw it up.
For all its splendor, our Constitution does have this vexing tendency to leave some concepts a bit murky. What exactly counts as “high crimes and misdemeanors” sufficient for impeachment? Are we all just agreeing to ignore the part about how each House member can represent a maximum of 30,000 people? What even is a “Letter of Marque and Reprisal”? But when it comes to elections, our founding document is blessedly clear. It’s up to the states to set “times, places, and manner of holding elections,” and Congress can pass laws that override the states as it deems necessary. That’s it — direct and easy. The Constitution conspicuously omits the president here; the Founders understood the risk of centralizing power to run elections in the hands of the one person who already sits atop our government. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-menacing-but-dumb-plan-to-break-the-midterms.html
2/. A classic SNL - "The Auctioneers".....Sarah Sherman and Matt Damon are great. 4 minutes.....
3/. Bernie Sanders explains why the progressive Democrats are winning all across this country......
The media pundits have written article after article desperately trying to understand why progressive candidates, despite being heavily outspent, keep defeating establishment Democrats in primaries around the country. Well, the answer is not complicated.
Whether it is a corrupt campaign finance system, unprecedented income and wealth inequality, a broken and wildly expensive healthcare system, the enormous threats posed by AI or an immoral and destructive foreign policy, progressives are talking about the real issues facing working families. And they are providing real solutions. Establishment Democrats are not.
Poll after poll shows the same thing. The American people know that the current economic system is rigged. The very rich get richer, while working families struggle. Today, while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, the billionaire class has never ever had it so good.
5/. An excellent story about the Trump family's involvement in crypto,
and the beyond blatant corruption of this scheme.....
The Trump family’s crypto business exemplifies all of the sleaziest aspects of the president’s code of conduct, if we can call it that.
It is almost certainly unconstitutional and may well be illegal. Estimates vary, but according to a cryptocurrency analytics firm reported on in The Times, the Trumps made at least $1.4 billion, and their investors lost nearly $4 billion from purchases of Trump-linked crypto. These purchases have — let’s say — coincided withpardons, dropped investigations and favorable regulatory decisions.
This crypto scheme is central to President Trump’s personal agenda: to use his office to vastly increase his and his family’s fortune.
The icing on the cake: A growing number of economists and financial analysts argue that crypto is itself a fiction, lacking a backup system of gold, silver or perhaps most important a national government, ordinarily considered essential ingredients of a currency.
6/. Natalie Harp, Trump's "binkie", running after his golf cart.......
Apparently there wasn't room for her in a cart, and she wanted to be close to him......
7/. Ever heard of Leopold Ashenbrenner? A boy wonder crypto king, whose hedge fund has just collapsed.
Interesting story, and you just have to wonder how these big money guys can be so stupid and gullible....
The saga of Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old hedge-fund manager who parlayed an essay about artificial intelligence into Situational Awareness LP, a fund managing tens of billions of dollars — until the shit hit the fan, days before his wedding — has captivated Wall Street for weeks.
We’re still learning more about both Aschenbrenner’s 11th-hour attempts to salvage the fund and the scope of the fallout. Reuters reported Friday that one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, Jane Street Capital, lost billions of dollars last month as a result of its investment in Situational Awareness, and in a letter to clients, it specifically blamed Aschenbrenner’s firm.
8/. Rosie O'Donnell guest hosted the Jimmy Kimmel Show this week, and she went out with a bang.
A very amusing 9 minutes.....
9/. Do you know what "crack spread" means?
Nothing nasty, it's used in the oil industry.....and it's affecting us bigtime.....
When President Trump announces yet another potential peace agreement with Iran, crude oil prices fall, and Americans make the mistake of thinking that gas and diesel prices will follow. But crude oil isn’t the right barometer of your pain at the pump. By the end of July, crude oil prices had fallen about 25 percent from their April peak, while gasoline prices dropped only about 9 percent after peaking at around $4.50 a gallon in May.
With prospects for peace fading again, both gas and diesel resumed their upward path, with gas at $4.07, while diesel reached $5.47 nationally.
Focusing on the price of crude is misleading, a bit like following the price of wheat when it’s bread that you’re actually buying. The gauge to watch is what’s called the crack spread — the difference between the cost of a barrel of crude and the prices of the refined products made from it. If you want to drill down, it’s often referred to as the 3-2-1 spread, which calculates prices when three barrels of crude are refined into two barrels of gasoline and one barrel of diesel, a typical ratio. (Cracking is the process of breaking large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones, which is what a refinery does.)
10/. Melania has not been seen at any official event for a month, but allegedly she has told Trump
if Natalie Harp is at the event, she isn't going.
Sounds like its true.....
11/. Thomas Friedman on how warfare has evolved to the point where our trillion
dollar military is totally vulnerable.
If I were writing a book about the U.S. war with Iran, I know exactly what the title would be. It would be President Trump’s social media post of April 5, 2026, directed at the leaders of Iran: “Open the [expletive] Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH!”
Wars are a crucible that very often exposes changes in the physics of the world around us — who has power, who doesn’t have power and how power is being wielded. Nothing better captures the new power equation produced by this war than Trump’s unhinged and obscene rant at the Iranian leadership for not bending to his bombs.
This new physics of war is equally present in the conflicts between Ukraine and Russia, Hezbollah and Israel, Hamas and Israel and the Houthis and everyone else. My summary of this new dynamic is that the small can now act really big, really accurately and really inexpensively. And while the big can also act really small, really accurately, it is far more expensive for them to do that while bearing the burden of vast legacy arms systems.
12/. Aaaaaahhhhhh.....the 50's.....
13/. Marco Rubio could be a force for good in the world......but has chosen to be "Little Marco" instead.
Good story by Simon Tisdall in the Guardian......
Viewed from the state department in Washington DC, the world is on fire – but record heatwaves are not to blame. The unresolved Iran war has badly burned Donald Trump. His military campaign conclusively failed, energy and food prices are still rising, and a Republican rout in November’s midterm elections looms. Humiliatingly, Israel this week flatly rejected his latest Gaza peace proposals, days after Trump congratulated himself on a “historic breakthrough”. In Europe, Russia’s attacks on Nato allies grow increasingly brazen, threatening a wider escalation. The Ukraine war, which Trump vowed to end, is now well into its fifth year, with civilians on both sides caught in the killing fields. And these are just the bigger firestorms. There are plenty more.
Rarely has the need for effective, professional diplomacy been more pressing. So step forward Marco Rubio, US secretary of state and chief American diplomat. These are challenges that, if successfully tackled, could propel the 55-year-old son of Cuban immigrants and the former US senator for Florida into pole position in the 2028 Republican presidential nomination race. Here is a chance for Rubio to defy critics who dismiss him as a lickspittle and Trump dogsbody, and transform himself into respected global statesman. His boss mocked him as “little Marco” and a “loser” when they were election rivals in 2016. (Rubio called him a conman.) Now is Rubio’s opportunity to go big, be brave and prove he’s a winner.
Or maybe not.
14/. Great point - how DO they sleep at night?
15/. Jamelle Bouie on how Trump's obsession in his second term is revenge.....
The principal aim of President Trump’s second term is revenge.
Trump is consumed by this lust for revenge. It defined the first moments of his second term. “Within hours of taking the presidential oath,” my news-side colleagues Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan report in “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” the president “stripped protective details” from Gen. Mark Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “and others he had viewed as disloyal, including former national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.”https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/opinion/trumps-revenge.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
16/. Scientists have explained what we already instinctively know - if you are over 60, extreme heat can really hurt you!
People aged 60 and over face dangers to their health from exposure to heat at much lower temperatures than previously thought, research has found.
Older adults will bear the brunt of increasingly frequent sustained spells of extreme heat globally as the world continues to warm up, according to a study in The Lancet Planetary Health.
Heatwaves will leave huge and growing numbers of people worldwide of all ages suffering from uncompensable heat stress (UHS) – where the body loses the ability to cool itself – and thus at risk of serious damage to their health, including death. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/17/extreme-heat-more-dangerous-for-people-60-and-over-than-previously-thought?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
17/. Ladies - a movie for you, "Over Under", about two girls growing up....great review!
Practically any woman who had a best female friend in early adolescence will be able to relate to this fragile, thoughtful drama about two American children, Violet (Emajean Bullock) and Stella (Anastasia Veronica Lee), living through the ages of nine to 13, a time as packed with incident as it is simultaneously uneventful and reassuringly dull. Unlike Richard Linklater’s justly acclaimed Boyhood, which had the resources to film for over a decade and thus observe its central character grow up, this was clearly made over a more compact schedule. Violet and Stella age much more subtly here, gradually growing breasts and getting a little bit taller, but those tiny incremental changes mean so much to them. Just as in real life with girls this age, a little bit of makeup, different clothes and some flat-ironing on the hair can alter a kid’s whole presentation.
Today's IRS joke
At the end of the tax year, the IRS office sent an inspector to audit the books of a local hospital.
While the IRS agent was checking the books, he turned to the CFO of the hospital and said,
“I notice you buy a lot of bandages. What do you do with the end of the roll when there’s too little left to be of any use?”
“Good question ,” noted the CFO. “We save them up and send them back to the bandage company and every once in a while, they send us a free roll.”
“Oh,” replied the auditor, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer.
But on he went, in his obnoxious way. “What about all these plaster purchases? What do you do with what’s left over after setting a cast on a patient?”
“Ah, yes,” replied the CFO, realizing that the inspector was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question. “
We save it and send it back to the manufacturer and every so often they will send us a free bag of plaster.”
“I see,” replied the auditor, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all CFO.
“Well,” he went on, “What do you do with all the remains from the circumcision surgeries?”
“Here, too, we do not waste,” answered the CFO.
“What we do is save all the little foreskins and send them to the IRS office, and about once a year they send us a complete prick.”
Today's nun joke
A nun went into an off-licence and asked for a bottle of whisky.
"Whisky?", the assistant asked, "I thought you nuns didn't drink!"
"We don't", the nun replied, "This is for the Mother Superior's constipation!"
She bought the whisky and left.
Later that night the assistant saw the same nun dead drunk on a park bench.
"I thought that was for the Mother Superior's constipation?", he said.
"It ish!", she replied, "When she sees me like this, she'll shit herself!"
Today's rude golfer joke
A golfer hits his ball into a yard next to the golf course.
As he goes to get it a man in the yard says, "Don't you see the sign? It says. 'Private property - Stay Out!'"
The golfer says. "I'm sorry I did not see it. That's my ball over there. May I have it, please?"
The man says. "It's in my yard and so it's my ball now."
The golfer looks at the man and says. "I think I understand."
He then walks back to the golf cart, gets another golf ball, then walks back and throws it into the yard as well.
The man says. "What did you do that for?"
The golfer replies "I consider myself a Gentleman and I believe every prick should have two balls."
Today's religious joke...
Three guys die together in an accident and go to heaven.
When they get there, St. Peter says, "We only have one rule here in heaven: Don't step on the ducks!"
So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place.
It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first guy accidentally steps on one.
Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest woman he has ever seen. St. Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to the ugly woman!"
The next day, the second guy steps accidentally on a duck, and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing, and with him is another extemely ugly woman.
He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first guy.
The third guy has observed all this and not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly woman, is very, VERY careful where he steps.
He manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to him with the most gorgeous woman he has ever laid eyes on: a very tall, tan, curvaceous, sexy blonde. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.
The guy remarks, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?"
She says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!"
Today's historical joke
An 18th-century vagabond in England, exhausted and famished, came to a roadside Inn with a sign reading: "George and the Dragon." He knocked.
The Innkeeper's wife stuck her head out a window. "Could ye spare some victuals?" He asked.
The woman glanced at his shabby, dirty clothes. "No!" she shouted.
"Could I have a pint of ale?"
"No!" she shouted.
"Could I at least sleep in your stable?"
"No!" she shouted again.
The vagabond said, "Might I please...?"
"What now?" the woman screeched, not allowing him to finish.
"D'ye suppose," he asked, "that I might have a word with George?"
Another rude golfer joke
A guy went out golfing and took a high-speed ball right in the crotch.
Writhing in agony, he dropped to the ground.
When he finally got himself to the doctor, he said, "How bad is it doc? I'm getting married next week, and my fiance is still a virgin in every way."
The doc said, "I'll have to put your penis in a splint to let it heal and keep it straight. It should be okay by next week."
So he took four tongue depressors and formed a neat little 4-sided splint, and taped it all together; a pretty impressive piece of work.
The guy mentioned none of this to his girl.
They got married and on the honeymoon night in their hotel room, she rips open her blouse to reveal a gorgeous set of breasts.
This was the first time he saw them, and she said, "You'll be the first; no one has ever touched them before."
He tore off his pants and said, "Honey, well look at this, still in its original crate!
