1/ The master, Frank Rich on the news of last week......the Donald of course, the Senator from Wall Street Chuck Schumer and Caitlyn Jenner.....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: Chuck Schumer's opposition to the Iran deal, Trump's continued strong poll numbers after the GOP debate, and Caitlyn Jenner's future as a public figure.
Chuck Schumer stirred up sharp criticism from the left by announcing his opposition to President Obama's Iran deal, though it doesn't look like his vote will ultimately prevent the deal's approval. Schumer aspires to lead the Senate Democrats after 2017. Should this turn cost him his colleagues' support down the line?
If Schumer’s "no" vote causes the Iran deal to go down, that would set up a furious and possibly successful challenge to his status as Harry Reid’s heir apparent in the Senate. But everyone assumes that Schumer is opposing the deal precisely because he knows his vote is not needed to put it over. So his ascent to the top of the Senate Democrats is not in jeopardy. Schumer knows how to count votes, God knows.
His wisdom about foreign policy is another matter. “I think we will have no choice but to engage in a large-scale military action in Iraq,” he said in January 2002. Actually, we did have a choice, and he made the wrong one, voting for the war resolution with even less hesitation than his fellow New York senator Hillary Clinton. Much of Schumer’s argument against the Iran deal, released as an online manifesto, is similarly lacking in gravitas. He comes across “a bit like your crazy uncle who gets his opinions from talk radio and wants to set you straight at Thanksgiving,” in the words of Jeffrey Lewis, writing in Foreign Policy.
2/ They still publish Mad magazine! Amazing.....but here is their excellent cover for last months feature - movie posters for politicians.....
MAD
But they didn't stop with Hillary and Bill. More than a few of the candidates got the movie-poster treatment, and all of them are spot on.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
3/ Bill Curry with a look at the political races, and [as he says] whatever you believe according to the polling is wrong. There is deep anger felt by everyone, right and left, about the corruption in Washington and the corrosive effect of big money, but none of the potential candidates is mentioning it except Bernie Sanders.
Most insightful, and it you are in despair about our politics read this one....
(Credit: AP/Reuters/Cliff Owen/Evan Vucci/Richard Drew/David Goldman)
In January, I began writing a weekly column for Salon. Hillary Clinton was still in pre-campaign mode but already losing ground — churning out formulaic answers to stock questions, delivering pricey speeches to the privileged, hobnobbing with Wall Street players while we peasants, now a working majority of the body politic, stocked up on torches and pitchforks. I wrote that her political model — neoliberal economics wed, as it must be, to pay-to-play politics — felt spent. In March, her emails surfaced. She waited a whole week to stage a brief, dodgy, purposefully chaotic press conference. I thought it a serious problem, especially when viewed in the context of her political history and persona, so I wrote that too.
On both points I got hurricane-force blowback from Clinton backers. As is the custom now, a lot of it was personal (why do you hate the Clintons, we hate you, you’re stupid.) or warmed over consultant speak ( the election’s so far off everyone will forget, the issue’s so abstract no one will care). What my critics shared, apart from their devotion to Hillary and contempt for me, was polling data. In surveys taken after the story broke, Clinton held on to her huge lead. (Had I not seen them? How could Salon hire a political columnist who didn’t even read polls?)
Last week, I wrote of another politician in trouble (at least if you regard Donald Trump as a politician).
4/ Bill Maher with a "New Rules", focusing mostly on Hillary and how to reinvigorate her campaign.....six funny minutes with some good [?] advice for Hillary.....
Bill Maher decided at the end of his show that even though Hillary Clinton is still the most likely candidate to get the Democrat nomination, he couldn’t stand idly by and watch her positive points take a free fall from recent events.
Maher pulled out a Donald Trump-esque description to her recent poll numbers and campaign performance, while also saying that Clinton really should “hit the blowhard as hard as he hits.” He went on to say that her recent speeches about policy are well and good, but reminded her that this is America, where its far more important to make her campaign fun and interesting than to it is to talk about matters relevant to being president
Maher had several suggestions about how Clinton could liven things up and making herself appear as a “spontaneous fun-lover.” The suggestions ran from running the gamut of celebrity interaction, to picking Toya Graham (The lady who went viral for slapping her son in the Baltimore riots) as her VP
5/ I want to set up my own church as I've always had a fancy to the moniker "Bishop Stanley".....and John Oliver explains how it works.....17 minutes of tax free advice, and quite a few chuckles too......
(Credit: Last Week Tonight)
On Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver took on the fraudulent behind-the-scenes (and occasionally, not so behind-the-scenes) practices of America’s megachurches — specifically, those that have exploited people’s faith for monetary gain with the promise that “donations will result in wealth coming back to you.” It’s called “The Prosperity Gospel,” and is built on the idea that every donation a congregant gives its pastor is a “seed” that will one day be harvested. “Wealth is a sign of God’s favor,” after all.
6/ Matt Taibbi goes on the road to Iowa to look at the clown car realities of the Republican Presidential race, and it's as bad as you might think it is. Taibbi is one of our most perceptive political reporters, and he does a great job explaining the new depths to the politics of craziness.....
Matt Taibbi hit the road with the Republican Party circus
The thing is, when you actually think about it, it's not funny. Given what's at stake, it's more like the opposite, like the first sign of the collapse of the United States as a global superpower. Twenty years from now, when we're all living like prehistory hominids and hunting rats with sticks, we'll probably look back at this moment as the beginning of the end.
In the meantime, though, the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination sure seems funny. The event known around the world as hashtagGOPClownCar is improbable, colossal, spectacular and shocking; epic, monumental, heinous and disgusting. It's like watching 17 platypuses try to mount the queen of England. You can't tear your eyes away from it.
It will go down someday as the greatest reality show ever conceived.
7/ One of the best "People Are Awesome" videos yet - the music is decent, the feats of skill/endurance/agility/style etc etc are cumulatively incredible.....you may have to watch this twice to get your head around the stuff these athletes do.....five [as they say] awesome minutes......
This shows stuff that goes right - the TwisterNederland Fails compilations show when it doesn't!
8/ Did you know there was a historic heatwave in Europe, bad enough it is threatening wine production in Italy and France?
Me neither.....but it's all part of record shattering heatwaves all over the world....
(Credit: Deyan Georgiev/Shutterstock)
Cars are melting in Italy. Ikea, in deference to Poland’s strained power grid, has stopped serving meatballs. As temperatures reach upwards of 115 degrees Fahrenheit, this week’s death toll in Egypt has surpassed 60.
And, lest you underestimate the severity of the record-breaking heatwave engulfing central and eastern Europe, experts say its next victim may be the French wine harvest.
That’s according to the AFP, which has scared up some dire(ish) projections for how the famed wine-producing regions of Burgundy and Beaujolais are expected to fare in the crippling heat.
9/ Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen with a sketch from Seth Myers show.....it's amusing at best, but it's in here because I love Kristen Wiig......four decent minutes.......isn't she beautiful?
(Credit: Late Night With Seth Meyers)
Master improviser Kristen Wiig joined forces with her former “SNL” colleague Fred Armisen on “Late Night” Thursday to show off a new favorite hobby of hers: lip-dubbing. The actress, who is off shooting Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters” at the moment, told Meyers that she’s also been busy creating some voice-over for Meyers’ own program for Australian viewers.
“The show’s already in English,” Meyers said. “Why would you dub it into English? And also why would you change the words?
10/ A fascinating social experiment - who would be more successful at getting money, a homeless guy asking for money for drugs and weed, or the same guy with his coughing daughter.....three most interesting minutes.....
If you've ever walked down a busy street, chances are, you may have encountered a homeless person. More often than not, these people are ignored as we pass them by -- many of us have even been taught from a young age to avoid making eye contact. However, it's hard to think that anyone could pass by a homeless man and his daughter and not want to help -- but that's exactly what happened when Colby Persin did a social experiment on the streets of New York.
Colby wanted to see what type of homeless person New Yorkers were more likely to give to -- a man asking for money for his family, or a man asking for money for drugs and alcohol. The results were shocking!
11/ This week you will see headlines about the NFL going after Tom Brady in court....but what the corporate media won't tell you is the real story. For that, read Matt Taibbi, look at the backstory and then judge the media coverage yourself.....
Roger Goodell and Tom Brady
There are countless ways to become famous in America. You can be born beautiful, run really fast in a straight line, revolutionize morning radio or break backboards with monster dunks. You can land a plane in the Hudson River. You can star in True Detective and spend the next year making whacked-out Lincoln commercials. There's no magic formula for celebrity. You just have to do something.
Then there's Roger Goodell.
12/ A much younger Neil Young with "Old Man".....what a wonderful song......
Recorded live for the BBC in the 80's...........
13/ Have you seen any studies in our gullible media that say Coke and other soft drinks don't make you obese, and quote "scientific studies" to make the point? Well guess what - Coca Cola Corp. has paid the scientists for the "studies" because people are waking up to the fact sodas make you fat. And unhealthy.....
Still drinking this poison?
Studies partially funded by Coca-Cola don’t tend to find that drinking soda is a cause of obesity. Studies they don’t fund find otherwise.
T
hese days, you almost have to feel sorry for soda companies. Sales of sugar-sweetened and diet drinks have been falling for a decade in the United States, and a new Gallup Poll says 60% of Americans are trying to avoid drinking soda. In attempts to reverse these trends and deflect concerns about the health effects of sugary drinks, the soda industry invokes elements of the tobacco industry’s classic playbook: cast doubt on the science, discredit critics, invoke nanny statism and attribute obesity to personal irresponsibility.
Casting doubt on the science is especially important to soda makers. Overwhelming evidence links habitual consumption of sugary drinks to poor health. So many studies have identified sodas as key contributors to chronic health conditions – most notably obesity, type-2 diabetes and coronary artery disease – that the first thing anyone trying to stay healthy should do is to stop drinking them.
Soda companies know this.
14/ Here is a cartoon from the Times on the ways you can help Coke's profits...amusing.....
15/ Carl Hiaasen on the latest outrage from the certified, 100% pond scum asshole YOU elected Governor.....it just goes on and on......
 "The public tab for defending Gov. Rick Scott, Cabinet members and staff from public records went up another $300,000 according to public records obtained by the Herald on Wednesday evening. The documents were requested on June 17.")
The public tab for defending Gov. Rick Scott, Cabinet members and staff from public records went up another $300,000 according to public records obtained by the Herald on Wednesday evening. The documents were requested on June 17.
Is Rick Scott the worst governor in the history of Florida?
It’s a question lots of people ask, and the verdict’s still out. The state has had many lousy governors since 1845, when the job first opened.
Scott is certainly a prime contender for worst ever, and each new screwing of Floridians pushes him closer to the title. The latest outrage reveals the fair-weather fiscal conservative reaching deep into public pockets to bail himself out of legal trouble.
During the last few months, taxpayers have been soaked for more than $1 million to settle lawsuits in which Scott and his dim-bulb Cabinet flagrantly violated Florida’s open-records and open-meetings laws.
16/ A new Quentin Tarantino movie is due in December - woop woop! "The Hateful Eight" is his latest and it's a western.....here is the trailer.....
Todays media - Floriduhman!
There is a twitter feed #floridaman, that gives all of the crazy news from Floriduh.....it's very amusing until you think "I live here too".......
Todays marital bliss joke
That morning. I went downstairs for breakfast hoping my husband would be pleasant and say, 'Happy Birthday,' and possibly have a small present for me.
As it turned out, he barely said good morning, let alone 'Happy Birthday.
I thought....well, that's marriage for you, but the kids.... they will remember.
My kids came bouncing down stairs to breakfast and didn't say a word.So when I left for the office I felt pretty low and somewhat dejected.
As I walked into my office, my handsome boss, Rick, said, 'Good morning, lady, and by the way Happy Birthday!' It felt a little better that at least someone had remembered.
I worked until one o'clock, when Rick knocked on my door and said,
'It's such a beautiful day outside, and it is your birthday, what do you say we go out to lunch, just you and me.'
I said, 'Thanks, Rick, that's the greatest thing I've heard all day. Let's go!'
We went to lunch. But we didn't go where we normally would go. He chose instead a quiet bistro with a private table. We had two martinis each and I enjoyed the meal tremendously.
On the way back to the office, Rick said, 'It's such a beautiful
day...we don't need to go straight back to the office, do we?'
I responded, 'I guess not. What do you have in mind?'
He said, 'Let's drop by my place, it's just around the corner.
After arriving at his house, Rick turned to me and said, 'If you
don't mind, I'm going to step into the bedroom for just a moment.
I'll be right back.'
'Ok.' I nervously replied.
He went into the bedroom and, after a couple of minutes, he came
out carrying a huge birthday cake,followed by my husband, my kids, and dozens of my friends and co-workers, all singing 'Happy Birthday.'
And I just sat there....
on the couch....
Naked......
Todays retirees joke
PARKING TICKET:
My wife and I went into town and visited a shop. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said, "Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?"
He just ignored us and continued writing the ticket.
I called him an "a**hole." He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tires.
So my wife called him a "s*ithead."
He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing more tickets.
This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote. He finally finished, sneered at us and walked away.
Just then our bus arrived, and we got on it and went home.
We always look for cars with religious bumper stickers. We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's so important at our age!!
Todays senior golfer joke
Bert, at 85 years
old, always wanted a pair of soft spike golf
shoes like Freddie Couples, so seeing some on
sale after his round, he bought them
and he was so delighted with his
purchase decided to wear them home to show the
missus.
Walking proudly into the house, he sauntered into
the kitchen and said to his wife,
"Notice anything different about me?"
Margaret at age 83, looked him over and replied,
"Nope."
Frustrated as all get out, Bert stormed off into the
bathroom, undressed and walked back
into the kitchen completely
naked except for the new golf shoes.Again he asked
Margaret, a little louder this time,
"Notice anything different NOW???"
Margaret looked up and said in her best deadpan
response, "Bert, what's different?
It's hanging down today, it was
hanging down yesterday, and it'll behanging down again tomorrow."
Furious, Bert yells out,"AND DO
YOU KNOW WHY IT'S HANGING DOWN,
MARGARET?"
"Nope. Not a clue", she replied.
"IT'S HANGING DOWN, BECAUSE
IT'S LOOKING AT MY NEW GOLF
SHOES!!!”
Without missing a beat old Margaret replies,"Shoulda bought a new golf hat.”
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