1/ It's good to have Frank Rich back from his long break, and here he opines on the politics of the last week
including the odious Liz Cheney dropping out of her Senate race.......
Cheney’s campaign was a rollicking disaster — she was dying in the polls — and some of her failure was specific to her: She was perceived (correctly) as an entitled carpetbagger who’d parachuted from tony Northern Virginia to tony Jackson Hole; a brazenly ambitious opportunist exploiting her family name; and a flip-flopper. Next to her, Tracy Flick, the ruthless student politician played by Reese Witherspoon in Election, seems like Eleanor Roosevelt. Besides, Enzi is well-liked and as conservative as many GOP voters in Wyoming would want, no matter how hard Cheney tried to contrive positions to his right.
2/ One of the reasons the Koch Brothers are left alone by the corporate media is their willingness to use the threat of legal action to muzzle their critics, but the excellent Rachel Maddow was having none of it........three minutes of great commentary.....you go Rachel!
Rachel Maddow had a fiery response to the Koch brothers on Friday after receiving a letter from their lawyer.
The MSNBC host and the billionaire brothers clashed over Maddow's report on Thursday about Florida's "drug test the poor" law, which she said turned out to be an "expensive and embarrassing failure." Maddow had said that an organization funded by groups affiliated with Charles and David Koch encouraged other states to adopt the legislation, despite its dismal results.
3/ Fox News had lots of stories with the theme "it's cold so global warming isn't true", so Jon Stewart took them apart with gusto......two three minute clips, and it's wonderful to have him back.....
Jon Stewart kicked off the first Daily Show of 2014 by going after a number of Fox News personalities for using the current insanely cold weather to mock global warming. Stewart explained that just because something is “your f*cking opinion” doesn’t mean it’s just as valid as tested scientific fact.
Stewart hoped to rein in the new year with something devoid of politics, but sighed as he rounded up the new “War on Carbon” happening in this country. He took on Eric Bolling for trying to follow the money in climate science, mockingly taking jabs at elitist “thousandaires” on their pimped-out “Arctic research cruises.”
4/ Something different - a photo essay about a trail in China that is reputed to be the world's most dangerous tourist destination......it leads up a mountain to a teahouse at the very top.....Mary - book us a ticket!
5/ Florida's very own Senator, Marco Rubio has blocked the appointment of a judge that he nominated a year ago.......watch Chris Hayes do an excellent job explaining the background, and then marvel at the scuzziness of this pond scumbag.........we are cursed with some of the worst "leadership" in the country, aren't we.....four minutes.....
Senator Rubio isn’t fooling anyone
Why has Senator Rubio turned his back on immigration reform and on supporting a gay, African-American judge? Here’s why.
6/ Unusual commercial titled "Beans"......sci-fi with attitude.......30 seconds......
7/ One for Brits, who are probably the only people who can understand the Yorkshire accent. The Monty Python troupe, with Four Yorkshiremen".....live on stage at the Hollywood Bowl.......three wonderful minutes.....
8/ Do you live in a state that relies on the Colorado river for water, which includes most of the southwestern states? If so, you might want to read this.......
If you don't live there, read why you might be thankful!
LAKE MEAD, Nev. — The sinuous Colorado River and its slew of man-made reservoirs from the Rockies to southern Arizona are being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years.
The once broad and blue river has in many places dwindled to a murky brown trickle. Reservoirs have shrunk to less than half their capacities, the canyon walls around them ringed with white mineral deposits where water once lapped. Seeking to stretch their allotments of the river, regional water agencies are recycling sewage effluent, offering rebates to tear up grass lawns and subsidizing less thirsty appliances from dishwashers to shower heads.
But many experts believe the current drought is only the harbinger of a new, drier era in which the Colorado’s flow will be substantially and permanently diminished.
Faced with the shortage, federal authorities this year will for the first time decrease the amount of water that flows into Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, from Lake Powell 180 miles upstream. That will reduce even more the level of Lake Mead, a crucial source of water for cities from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and for millions of acres of farmland
9/ Another commercial [1 minute] that has gone viral - the Old Spice "Mom's Song".....a little creepy, but unlike any ad you have ever seen, and amusing too.....this may be shown during Super Bowl.....
We all know that puberty is an awkward time for guys, but did you know it’s just as uncomfortable for their moms? Old Spice‘s latest creation, “Mom Song,” tackles this very sensitive subject with tact, purpose and some of the creepiest imagery I’ve ever seen in a commercial.
The commercial, which has blown up since hitting the web Jan. 3, features a crew of emotional mothers in various states of disguise — not to mention emotional distress — as they watch their sons turn into men before their very eyes.
Honestly, we’re a little surprised that Old Spice is already running this commercial, rather than saving it for the Super Bowl next month. (But, hey, that just means the company probably has something even more outrageous waiting in the wings!)
10/ This story in Rolling Stone has the right wing media in a venomous tizzy, calling it Communism and worse.....but read for yourself......
We report, you decide....
It's a new year, but one thing hasn't changed: The economy still blows. Five years after Wall Street crashed, America's banker-gamblers have only gotten richer, while huge swaths of the country are still drowning in personal debt, tens of millions of Americans remain unemployed – and the new jobs being created are largely low-wage, sub-contracted, part-time grunt work.
Millennials have been especially hard-hit by the downturn, which is probably why so many people in this generation (like myself) regard capitalism with a level of suspicion that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. But that egalitarian impulse isn't often accompanied by concrete proposals about how to get out of this catastrophe. Here are a few things we might want to start fighting for, pronto, if we want to grow old in a just, fair society, rather than the economic hellhole our parents have handed us.
1. Guaranteed Work for Everybody
Unemployment blows. The easiest and most direct solution is for the government to guarantee that everyone who wants to contribute productively to society is able to earn a decent living in the public sector. There are millions of people who want to work, and there's tons of work that needs doing – it's a no-brainer. And this idea isn't as radical as it might sound: It's similar to what the federal Works Progress Administration made possible during Roosevelt's New Deal, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. vocally supported a public-sector job guarantee in the 1960s.
11/ A 3 minute dance supercut, set to the Pointer Sisters "Neutron Dance"......nicely done.....
Want to see 73 movie dance scenes all synchronized to The Pointer Sisters' "Neutron Dance?" Well, of course you do.
Watch Part 2 of Robert Jones' epic movie dance tribute above and see if you can recognize all the films. And if you haven't seen Part 1 (which is beautifully set to "The Safety Dance"), watch that here!
12/ Tom Tomorrow with his amusing month by month look at "The Year In Crazy 2013".....two parts........click on the cartoon to make it bigger....
13/ Criss Angel is one of the "celebrity" magicians, but according to this 3 minute video he deserves his fame.....inexplicable tricks with a coffee cup.....
14/ David Pogue, formerly the Time's savvy tech columnist, with a six minute TED talk on how to use your phone and computer properly, using easy tricks every 13 year old uses, but you don't.....
If you don't learn something from this video, you must already be working at NSA.....
Tech columnist David Pogue shares 10 simple, clever tips for computer, web, smartphone and camera users. And yes, you may know a few of these already -- but there's probably at least one you don't.
15/ Excellent column from Scott Maxwell in the Orlando Sentinel on how Big Sugar operates to keep the enormous subsidies they get to ruin our environment.....needless to say they have purchased the votes of all Florida politicians......his column quotes a Washington Post investigation, and the link to that story is below.....
In Washington these days, consensus is about as rare as a third eye … on a unicorn.
Truly, you'd have trouble getting Democrats and Republicans to agree the sky is blue unless there was a campaign check in it for them.
Yet both parties united in 2013 for one of America's time-honored political traditions: propping up the sugar industry with tax dollars, price supports, trade restrictions and government loans.
If that sounds like the kind of thing you couldn't care less about, consider this:
It costs you plenty.
It leads to higher grocery bills — every time you buy anything from a candy bar to a box of cereal.
It costs you tax dollars — about $280 million last year alone.
And you pay for it with your natural resources, because the handouts prop up an industry that basically uses the lower half of Florida like a toilet bowl. Then we spend billions more to clean it up.
So why do we do such a thing?
Because the giveaways pay off nicely for the sugar barons ... and the politicians.
In a nice bit of in-depth reporting, The Washington Postrecently detailed how Big Sugar inundates politicians with cash.
We're talking $49 million spent on federal donations and lobbying in the past five years alone — more than all other crop sectors combined.
And you'd better believe Florida politicians are raking it in.
16/ Kat Krazy with "Siren".....if you like EDM you will like this song as it's on heavy rotation, catchy and she has a nice voice, but the video is just so-so......oh well......
Todays video - let's have another look at Jewel going undercover to a karaoke bar to sing her own songs.....sounds hokey, but it's really good.....
Todays hospital joke
Sunday night I gradually woke up stiff as a plank in a hospital's ICU, tubes up my nose and down my throat, wires monitoring every function and a massive headache, with stabbing pains in both ears.
It was obvious I'd been in a serious accident.
A gorgeous nurse hovered over me.
She looked at me, deep and steady, and slowly said to me, “You may not feel anything from the waist down.”
I managed to mumble in reply, “Can I feel your tits then?”
Todays Rodney Dangerfield jokes
I'm so ugly my mother had morning sickness...AFTER I was born.
I remember the time that I was kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father. He said he wanted more proof.
Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman, and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, "Do you think we'll ever find them?" He said, "I don't know kid. There's so many places they can hide."
My wife made me join a bridge club. I jump off next Tuesday.
I'm so ugly, I once worked in a pet shop, and people kept asking how big I'd get.
I went to see my doctor. "Doctor, every morning when I get up and I look in the mirror I feel like throwing up. What's wrong with me?" He said..."Nothing, your eyesight is perfect."
I went to the doctor because I'd swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. My doctor told me to have a few drinks and get some rest.
With my old man I got no respect. I asked him, "How can I get my kite in the air?" He told me to run off a cliff.
Some dog I got. We call him Egypt because in every room he leaves a pyramid. His favorite bone is in my arm. Last night he went on the paper four times - three of those times I was reading it.
One year they wanted to make me a poster boy - for birth control.
My uncle's dying wish was to have me sitting in his lap; he was in the electric chair.
Todays kids joke
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