1/. A frightening, depressing and totally logical article about how the collapse of our, and indeed global society is already in process
and there is nothing anyone or any government can do about it..
Reading this makes me happy to be "mature".....
Collapse isn’t loud. It’s not a Hollywood explosion, not a sudden black hole swallowing the United States overnight. There’s no singular moment when the world collectively gasps and realizes everything has come undone. Instead, collapse is a slow, grinding process — insidious, creeping, and patient.
A lot of people are waiting for a definitive moment of “global chaos” — a clear, singular event that heralds the beginning of the end. But here’s the thing: it’s already happening. People expecting the end of civilization to arrive like a meteor impact are missing the truth. Global collapse is more like a terminal illness — it weakens, depletes, and eventually kills, but rarely all at once. https://medium.com/edge-of-collapse/forget-the-future-the-fall-of-society-has-already-begun-2bddafc3dba3
2/. James Carville with a plan for the Democrats on how to cope with Trump - do nothing.
This shouldn't be too hard for the spineless wimps we have.
The Republican Party is all too often effective at campaigning and winning elections, but there’s another fact about it that a lot of Americans forget: The Republican Party flat out sucks at governing. Even Tucker Carlson agrees with this. For all the huffing and puffing on the campaign trail in 2016, the first Trump administration largely amounted to tax cuts for the wealthy, 500 miles of a border wall and a destructive pandemic gone viral. George W. Bush got us into a harebrained war in Iraq and then tried to privatize Social Security while letting our financial system drive smack into the Great Recession. And George H.W. Bush governed his way into a one-term presidency because of the economy
3/. Speaking of spineless wimps, here's Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic House Leader, on the Rachel Maddow show.....
4/. Bob Lefsetz with a riff on where we are now.....
Because the networks and the cable outlets are afraid of being sued by Trump.
The real reason the politicians wanted to get rid of TikTok is because they didn’t want you to have a voice. They wanted to quash public discourse. They wanted to continue the twentieth century top down paradigm which has been eviscerated by the internet.
But the revolution is happening. And it’s happening on TikTok. Because that’s where you see the stories in the news come alive. Most specifically, the town halls.
Accountability. While President Musk asks government workers to justify their jobs, to prove they’re working hard, congresspeople have been slacking. The only problem is, unlike Musk, congresspeople are accountable to the public.
And the public has had enough. https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2025/02/23/21720/
5/ We have seen first hand how FEMA works [in Asheville], and they are professional and diligent......
Which is why dismantling the agency will be disastrous [sic].
This article tells us how bad it will be without FEMA....
After Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina, Francesca got to work. As an employee for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, she was deployed to the state for a month to coordinate aid for impacted residents, which included feeding families and sharing information at community events. From the start, her work was more challenging than usual. Helene left behind a level of devastation so extreme “nobody should have to contemplate or hold in their head,” Francesca, which is a pseudonym to protect her identity for fear of retribution, tells me fourth months after the storm. In the weeks since, FEMA employees have been told they are no longer allowed to speak to the media without direct authorization, according to an internal email provided to Rolling Stone.
6/. AI is doing some amazing stuff on video......
Go full screen on this.....
7/. Andrew Sullivan on America's new place in the world, and it is not where we were....welcome to Trumpville.....
“The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God
we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest … The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny,” - Ronald Reagan at Pointe du Hoc, France on June 6, 1984. It is a fascinating moment, isn’t it, when Reagan’s vision of the West is finally swept into the dustbin of history by a Republican president.
And that is the only solid conclusion one can make after this week of astonishing incompetence and madness. We only saw Donald Trump’s foreign policy darkly in his first term — constrained, as he was, by a handful of white-knuckled Republicans in the executive branch. Now we see it face to face. It’s a vision where international law disappears, great powers divide up the planet into spheres of influence, and the strong always control the weak. It’s Trump’s vision of domestic politics as well. And of life.
Control, plunder, gloat. This is the Trump way.
8/. SNL did a celebrity "Black Jeopardy", which was really funny but a guest appearance by Tom Hanks at the end where he seemed
reluctant to shake the black host's hand has sent MAGA ballistic.....
9/. I tried to verify this story , but couldn't find any reference to Elaine Stefanik fainting......
I wonder if Google is deleting any anti-Trump stories?
Yesterday, in a press conference, Donald Trump:
Told his voters to buy his upcoming batch of NFTs featuring him as the various 12 Greek gods, and then ranted about how hot the female versions of him as the goddesses are, and how giant their breasts are. He said he always thought he’d have been one of the great beauties of all time if he had been a girl, and he cited his daughter Ivanka’s physical attributes to describe how his own body would have looked.
He then discussed his “big Trump brain,” and reminded the audience he had gone to Wharton. He also said he didn’t need college, and he had been smarter than everyone else around him, even the professors, and he knew it because he said he paid someone else to take his SATs, and no one figured it out, and he paid other students to do all his homework and take all his tests, and he was so smart he bought his way to a degree. He said that’s how you know he’s a genius at business: because he spent 10x more money for his degree than everyone else.
10/ If you've never seen any of these this is a good one to start with.....
World Order with "Have A Nice Day"....
11/. Thinking of fleeing the Trump madness to a supposedly sane country like the UK? Think again......
If the Trump project implodes, it might take with it the extreme and far-right European parties to which it is umbilically connected. Like all such parties, the hard-right Reform UK poses as patriotic while grovelling to foreign interests, and this could be its undoing.
But we cannot bank on it. The UK government must do all it can to prevent the disaster that has befallen several other European nations. If it fails to meet people’s needs and keeps echoing far-right talking points, we could go the same way as Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Finland, Sweden and Austria.
As well as working more effectively to keep Reform out of office, the government should ensure that, if the worst happens and Nigel Farage and his Death Eaters win in 2029, the foundations of an authoritarian state have not already been laid for them. But here too Labour seems perversely determined to prepare the ground for its traditional opponents.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2025/feb/22/keir-starmer-labour-illiberal-laws-hard-right-authoritarians?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
12/. Republicans....
13/. Do you own a Nazi car [Tesla]? Trade it in ASAP.....
Elon Musk, an impossibly wealthy, drug-addled Nazi sympathizer, is making drastic, devastating, unaccountable cuts to our federal government. He is making decisions of great global consequence based on nothing but his own demonstrably ignorant ideas. He is materially harming millions of people around the world. He seems to be operating outside of the law. He appears to have nothing holding back his worst impulses. The Republican Party has opened the door for him, the Democratic Party believes itself to be unable to stand in his way, and there is no indication that the courts will be able to roll back the damage he has already done. It is up to us. As a regular person, it can seem impossible to plan and execute actions that would have a serious impact on the richest guy in America. Protesting and waving signs and calling your representatives are all things that you should do, but I know that they can often leave people feeling like their effort has not produced any real effects. You marched against the war and the war still happened. You marched against DOGE and they still defunded a bunch of cancer trials. Is any of this actually getting through to the well-insulated oligarchs?
14/. Sara Bareilles with a wonderful version of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".....
15/. A story on how home ownership has become a nightmare for some.....
“Ibought my home in a hurry in 2020,” said Meg, 60, an office manager from Maryland. “It was less expensive to take on a mortgage than to keep paying ever-increasing rents for my college-student daughter and me.”
Now housing costs consume 50% of her income.
Although Meg said she felt “grateful to have our little house”, the purchase has lost its luster. Her aging row home needs various repairs, while other costs associated with home ownership rose continually too.
“I had to take out an additional mortgage to replace the heat and AC system,” she said. “I keep increasing the deductibles on the home insurance to try to keep the premiums down. They ratchet up every year, while my income does not. I won’t be able to do more repairs unless our circumstances change significantly. Our necessities consume 75% of my income, with 50% of that housing costs.”
16/. Finally the Times is getting what's happening......
I grew up a Reagan Republican in the middle of the Cold War, and I never thought I’d see the day when the president of the United States became the world’s most prominent and effective Russian propagandist.
Yet that’s exactly what happened last week, when President Trump began a diplomatic offensive against the nation of Ukraine and the person of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This month, the administration couldn’t seem to get its message straight. First it seemed to want to offer unilateral concessions to the Russian government — including by taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table and recognizing Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine — only to walk back the concessions days (or hours) later.
The cumulative effect was confusing. What was the administration’s position on Ukraine? Last week, however, the words and actions of the administration left us with no doubt — the United States is taking Russia’s side in the conflict.
17/. Damn - I wish these were funny....
18/. Good story from the Tampa Bay Times on the condo market in Florida......
Time is up for condo owners across Florida to meet safety guidelines passed in the wake of 2021’s deadly Champlain Towers collapse.
Condo associations had until Dec. 31 to inspect aging buildings and come up with a plan to save for routine maintenance.
The market took a nosedive in the lead up to that deadline as owners rushed to list their homes to avoid paying for newly mandated repairs.
By the end of this year, associations will be required to fund reserves fully for the first time. Associations that have neglected to save for years could have to scrape together millions of dollars in a matter of months. That burden will likely fall on the shoulders of owners in the form of special assessments.
19/. If you live near Mount Dora this story is depressing.
Long and Scott's farm is being sold for development, another farmer driven out of business by supermarkets using middlemen to screw the farmers.
So the last corn farmer in Central Florida is closing his farm.
Of course it doesn't help if Lake County has never seen a development they didn't like.
The farm, located south of Mount Dora, east of Astatula, and west of Zellwood, has been a staple of the community for generations, offering fresh produce and a popular corn maze and fall festival that attracts families from across Central Florida. However, with rapid development expanding from nearby Orlando, Scott says the time has come to transition the land to a new purpose.
Scott said he is now under contract with a developer proposing a 266-acre residential community, a 289-acre golf course with open space, and a 91-acre conservation area. While he acknowledges that some community members may oppose the development, Scott believes the plan maintains a balance between growth and green space.
20/. Want to stay sane? Switch off your news alerts.....
Great advice......
How are you not going mad?” is a thing I’ve heard recently. “How are you not talking about this all the time, how are you merrily, some say stupidly, going about your business as if the world did not feel like a coin in an arcade 2p machine, being pushed slowly but definitely off the edge and tasting of blood?” My answer: I’ve turned off breaking news alerts. More than that, I’ve dramatically limited the news I read. How am I not going mad? This is how I’m not going mad. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/feb/23/want-to-stay-sane-try-switching-off-your-news-alerts?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
21/. Robert De Niro in a TV series? Surely not, but here it is - "Zero Day"......the Guardian likes it!
There’s an awful lot of fun television around at the moment. I can only assume it is an equal and opposite reaction to, well, everything going on in the real world – and I’m very grateful for Prime Target, Paradise, High Potential, the forthcoming new series of Reacher and various other vital antidepressant contributions to life.
But I think we can agree that there is always room for another serotonin-boosting entry into the viewing schedules. Enter Zero Day. It’s as fine a piece of hokum as you could wish to see – not least as it stars an on-form Robert De Niro in his first big small-screen outing.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/20/zero-day-review-de-niro-trump?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
22/. This looks good too, if you like boxing.....the Guardian gives it 5 stars.....
Some will come for the boxing. The Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight, has set his latest endeavour in the East End of London and the shadowy underworld of late‑Victorian bare-knuckle fighting. The new series is called A Thousand Blows, and this is an understatement. Some will stay away because of the boxing. This would be a mistake, because it is about so much more. It is about all kinds of violence – that perpetrated against children by those supposed to protect them, against the increasingly poor by the increasingly rich, against women by men, against the colonised by colonisers – and what happens when you throw people together in the melting pot of a rapidly industrialising city where only the fittest can survive.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/21/a-thousand-blows-review-the-irresistible-new-boxing-drama-from-the-peaky-blinders-creator?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
23/. Rolling Stone ranks the best picture Oscar winners since 2000.....
And the one they rate #1 will surprise you and make you want to see it ASAP......
It's not this one below! No Country is #5.....
The Oscars have been around for almost 100 years now, celebrating a medium that was born in the last few years of the 19th century, became the art form du jour of the 20th century and continues to flourish in the 21st century. When we entered the new millennium, we all wondered how the movies would change and evolve — and if the ceremony that handed out “Hollywood’s biggest honor” every spring would change with it.
The answer is… yes. And no. And sometimes, kinda. And, as in so many of the previous century’s editions: WTF, Oscars!? We’ve gone back and rewatched every Best Picture winner since the year 2000, and the result has been eye-opening. Some films have aged poorly, some have surprisingly stood the test of time, some have reminded us that when Oscars gets it right, it can get it really right — and some movies will forever be cursed with being Crash. Our ranked list, from worst to best.
Today's Obituary joke
Anyone who has had to write an obituary for a loved one knows how challenging it can be.
That’s why we have to hand it to offspring of former New Orleans firefighter William Ziegler for penning one of the most entertaining tributes we’ve read.
Ziegler, 69, “escaped this mortal realm” on July 29. The family jokes that, unlike previous times, this was “not a ploy to avoid creditors or old girlfriends … he assures us that he is gone.”
Ziegler’s daughter, Sharah Currier, told the Times-Picayune that her dad would always pass along strange obituaries. “He would have loved this,” she says. “He probably would have forwarded this obituary to us.”
Here it is in its entirety:
He assures us he is gone
William Ziegler escaped this mortal realm on Friday, July 29, 2016 at the age of 69.
We think he did it on purpose to avoid having to make a decision in the pending presidential election.
He leaves behind four children, five grandchildren, and the potted meat industry, for which he was an unofficial spokesman until dietary restrictions forced him to eat real food.
William volunteered for service in the United States Navy at the ripe old age of 17 and immediately realized he didn’t much enjoy being bossed around. He only stuck it out for one war.
Before his discharge, however, the government exchanged numerous ribbons and medals for various honorable acts.
Upon his return to the City of New Orleans in 1971, thinking it best to keep an eye on him, government officials hired William as a fireman.
After twenty-five years, he suddenly realized that running away from burning buildings made more sense than running toward them. He promptly retired.
Looking back, William stated that there was no better group of morons and mental patients than those he had the privilege of serving with (except Bob, he never liked you, Bob).
Following his wishes, there will not be a service, but wellwishers are encouraged to write a note of farewell on a Schaefer Light beer can and drink it in his honor.
He was never one for sentiment or religiosity, but he wanted you to know that if he owes you a beer, and if you can find him in Heaven, he will gladly allow you to buy him another.
He can likely be found forwarding tasteless internet jokes (check your spam folder, but don’t open these at work). Expect to find an alcoholic dog named Judge passed out at his feet. Unlike previous times, this is not a ploy to avoid creditors or old girlfriends. He assures us that he is gone. He will be greatly missed.
Todays 5 undeniable facts joke
A wise person once said
1. We all love to spend money buying new clothes but we never realize
that the best moments in life are enjoyed without clothes.
2. Having a cold drink on a hot day with a few friends is nice, but
having a hot friend on a cold night after a few drinks - PRICELESS.
3. Breaking News: Condoms don't guarantee safe sex anymore. A friend
of mine was wearing one when he was shot dead by the woman's husband.
4. Arguing over a girl's bust size is like choosing between Molson,
Heineken, Carlsberg, & Budweiser. Men may state their preferences,
but will grab whatever is available.
AND...
5. I haven't verified this on Snopes, but it sounds legit --- A recent
study found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer
than the men who mention it.
Today's blond jokes
One day a blond walks into a doctors office with both of her ears burnt.
The doctor asks her what had happened.
She says, "well... when I was ironing my work suit the phone rang and I mistakenly picked up the iron instead of the phone.
"Well that explains one ear, but what about the other."
"The bastard called again"
A blonde walked into an electronics store and said to the salesmen: "I want that tv." The salesperson shook his head and said, "No, we don't sell to blondes." So the blonde left and came back with her hair dyed brown and said: "I'll take that tv." Again the salesman said: "No, we don't sell to blondes." So she left again and came back with her hair dyed black and said: "I want that tv." But the salesman still said: "No, we don't sell to blondes."Finally the blonde got fed up and said, "That's it! How'd you know I was a blonde?!" she asked. The salesman answered: "Cause that's a microwave."
A blonde was taking helicopter lessons. The instructor said, "I'll radio you every 1000 feet to see how you're doing." At 1000 feet, the instructor radioed her and said she was doing great. At 2000 feet, he said she was still doing well. Right before she got to 3000 feet, the propeller stopped, and she twirled to the ground. The instructor ran to where she crash landed and pulled her out of the helicopter. "What went wrong?" The blonde said, "At 2500 feet, I started to get cold, so I turned the big fan off."
Today's lawyer joke
Two lawyers had been stranded on a desert island for several months. The only thing on the island was a tall coconut tree that provided them Each day one of the lawyers would climb to the top to see if he could spot One day the lawyer yelled down from the tree, "WOW, I just can't believe my eyes. There is a woman out there floating in our direction." The lawyer on the ground was sceptical and said, "You're hallucinating, you've finally lost your mind." But within a few minutes, up on the beach floated a stunningly beautiful woman, face up, totally naked, unconscious, without even so much as a ring or earrings on her person. The two lawyers went down to the water, dragged her up on the beach and discovered, yes, she was alive, warm and breathing. One said to the other, "You know, we've been on this God forsaken island for months now without a woman. It's been such a long, long time... So... Do you think we should...well...you know...screw her?" "Out of WHAT?!?" asked the other lawyer. |
