1/ Matt Taibbi with his take on Trump.....
In a time where all media outlets are endlessly pontificating on this asshole, what does one do? The answer is turn to people you trust to tell it like it is,.....so here is Taibbi, the current master of commentary on our political system, with his observations on Trump and the Republican party..........
Illustration by Victor Juhasz
I
ndianapolis, Indiana, May 3rd, 2016, a little before 8:30 p.m. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz strode onstage beneath a gorgeous stained-glass relief in the city's Union Station. The hall was doubling as a swanky bar for an upscale local hotel, and much of the assembled press was both lubricated and impatient. The primary had been called for Donald Trump more than an hour before. What was the holdup?
"God bless the Hoosier State!" Cruz said to whoops and cheers after he finally emerged. He was surrounded by a phalanx of American flags, family members and his gimmick running mate of six and a half days, Carly Fiorina, who stared out at the crowd with her trademark alien-abducted smile.
Cruz glanced back and forth across the room with that odd, neckless, monitor-lizard posture of his. He had to know the import of this moment. Nothing less than the future of the Republican Party had been at stake in the Indiana primary.
2/ A really, really funny SNL with Hillary [Kate McKinnon] and Bernie [Larry David] having a last dance together......four most amusing minutes.....
The scene opens with Hillary (played by Kate McKinnon) bellying up to the bar — tended by cast regular Keenan Thompson. The bartender tells her it has come time for the evening be over. A voice from behind her announces ‘it’s not over until I say it’s over!’ That voice is Bernie Sanders (played by Larry David) sitting behind Clinton — So far behind her that he couldn’t possibly catch up, as she puts it.
The two decide to sit together and reminisce about the campaign. Hillary thanks him for the ’email line’ and Sanders laughs along but at the same time expresses his regret about not exploiting the controversy. After some more hilarious banter about the campaign, they decide to have one last dance together, with its own funny moments and ending.
3/ John Oliver with a very good commentary on Paul Ryan's endorsement of Trump, and "John Miller" [Trump's alter ego]....four funny minutes, Oliver in great form......
“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver opened Sunday night’s episode with a mini-feature on “Rome burning in man form,” Donald Trump’s Thursday meeting with Paul Ryan and other GOP top brass.
Paul Ryan, who had declined to endorse Trump even after he became the GOP’s presumptive nominee, said after their meeting that he was “very encouraged by what I heard from Donald Trump.”
Ryan doubled up on the surprises, adding that Trump has “a very good personality,” and is, “a very warm and genuine person.”
4/ Really insightful story from this excellent blogger on why the media have failed so spectacularly to cope with the rise of Trump.....
Why the Media Cannot Deal Effectively with Donald Trump
by Benjamin Studebaker
A lot of people are upset at the media for facilitating the rise of Donald Trump by giving him so much coverage and attention. This coverage legitimized him as a serious candidate and frequently gave him a free platform, allowing Trump to market himself to voters without having to buy many commercials. But we are wrong to point the finger at the media–the media is subject to certain market imperatives that made it impossible for the media to handle Trump in a way that would have been better, and this will continue to be the case going forward.
Back in 2014, I wrote a post about why TV news tends to be so bad. There are many reasons that TV news serves us poorly–a TV news station can only offer you one story at any given moment, there’s no opportunity to fact-check or click links to sources, the stories TV news chooses to offer tend to be about immediate crises or controversies rather than chronic and boring long-term problems, and TV thrives on generating fear and panic, emotional responses to problems that sometimes merit a calm, rational assessment. TV news is the worst about these things, but we all know that newspapers tend to put the big scary stuff on the front page and websites tend to offer clickbait. The thing is that many of us think we can blame the media, as if the media wants it to be this way or deliberately chooses to make things this way. It doesn’t.
5/ An amusing three minutes - the cold open from SNL where the Donald and Chris Christie are trying to pick a VP.....
This week’s Saturday Night Live cold open featured the frighteningly real prospect of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, portrayed by Darrell Hammond, selecting a running mate with the help of Bobby Moynihan‘s Gov. Chris Christie. The SNL bit opened with a canny late swing at Trump’s public relations alter ego, then hit some fairly edgy notes as Moynihan pitched everyone from Carly Fiorina to a certain Floridian who crawled back into the news this week.
6/ Interesting Paul Krugman blog on why Hillary has a better chance to stop Trump than any of the Republican primary challengers had......it sounds logical, and boy do I hope he's right.....
The G.O.P. Is Not America, Clinton Is Not Rubio
MAY 16, 2016 8:47 PM
Greg Sargent interviews Hillary’s chief strategist about the coming general election, and finds him dismissive of claims that Donald Trump can repeat his march through the Republican primary. You never know — but it does seem obvious, except to the political pundits completely flabbergasted by Trump’s rise, that the general election is going to be a very different story. For the truth is that Trump’s Republican rivals fought with both hands tied behind their backs, and that just won’t happen from here on in.
Greg summarizes the case very well, but let me do it a bit differently. Think about Trump’s obvious weaknesses, why Republicans couldn’t exploit them, but why Democrats can.
First, he’s running a campaign fundamentally based on racism. But Republicans couldn’t call him on that, because more or less veiled appeals to racial resentment have been key to their party’s success for decades. Clinton, on the other hand, won the nomination thanks to overwhelming nonwhite support, and will have no trouble hitting hard on this issue.
Second, Trump is proposing wildly irresponsible policies that benefit the rich. But so were all the other Republicans, so they couldn’t attack him for that. Clinton can.
7/ A two minute Seth Meyers segment where he imagines an attack ad from Trump.....very good, and I love the last line.....
Seth Meyers took some time Wednesday night to wonder what it would be like if Donald Trump used his “best words” to go after Hillary Clinton for her camp’s latest dig into his personality.
Clinton’s campaign received some blowback earlier this week, when a Super PAC ad about Trump’s supposed misogyny was dismantled by the fact that they clearly spun one of his quotes to make the ad work. With this, Meyers presented the ad clip that he envisioned Trump would use in retaliation.
8/ Samantha Bee wonders why the religious right are getting behind Trump in a classic nine minute riff on the crazies out there.....
She has developed into one of the edgiest and smartest comic reporter out there......this is excellent stuff.....
“Seriously, what is going on? Are evangelicals that eager to get the apocalypse going?” Bee asked.
In a bid to make sense of the seismic shift, Bee went back in time to explain why evangelicals had helped to turn the billionaire real estate magnate into the presumptive GOP nominee.In a 9-minute monologue, one of the longest take-downs in the history of her show, Bee detailed the origins of the new religious right.
“Please understand when I say the religious right, I’m not talking about people of faith, hashtag #NotAllChristians, but a political movement to harness voting evangelicals to the conservative Republican cause,” Bee clarified.
9/ A brief interview with Rachel Maddow on the Seth Meyers show, and she explains how the next six months are going to be crucial for the future of this country.....good common sense from Ms. Maddow, one of our smartest TV anchors who hasn't totally sold out to corporate......yet.
Two interesting minutes...
“Late Night” host Seth Meyers welcomed MSNBC heavy-hitter Rachel Maddow onto last night’s episode. Among other topics, Maddow laid out a rhetorical strategy whereby Hillary Clinton could feasibly defeat the enigmatic Donald Trump in a general election.
Donald Trump’s “policy is just like whatever’s floating in the air around him. It’s not been what he’s running on,” Maddow said. “He’s sort of running on who he is … He’s a big rich guy who doesn’t pay attention to what people want from him, and he’s willing to be politically incorrect and self-funding.
10/ An excellent John Oliver, on how 911 centers are sadly deficient in technology and funding.....our leading comedic reporter with another sad commentary on how our basic services have been gutted.....seventeen minutes of great reporting......
“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver this week devoted his primary segment to 911, or “the thing you call right after WebMD tells you you’re not going to be able to get it out on your own.”
“We have a lot of faith in 911,” Oliver explained. “But the system can break down more that you think and when it does, people can die as a result.”
Oliver rolled a “Today Show” clip detailing the tragic death of Shanell Anderson, who accidentally turned her car into a pond in suburban Atlanta while delivering newspapers in the dark. Anderson gave 911 her exact location, but an error on the dispatcher’s end meant she couldn’t be located.
Oliver noted that in a 2014 report, the FCC concluded, “we estimate that the location accuracy improvements … could save approximately 10,120 lives annually.”
And one logical improvement, he said, would be the same up-to-date location finding technology that even the most trivial smartphone apps feature.
“Even the Domino’s app can tell where you are,” he added. “And they’ve barely mastered the technology to make a palatable pizza.”
11/ A stunningly beautiful travelogue of our planet.....from animals to magical places, a lovely nine minutes.....
You deserve at least one nice video.....
12/ A fascinating interview with one of my favorite actors, Christopher Walken, In Rolling Stone. The story has links to some famous scenes, including "The Watch" scene from Pulp Fiction.....
"Anytime you've got guns in a movie, I triple-check everything," Walken, pictured here in 'The Deer Hunter,' says. "People make mistakes."
For a while, Christopher Walken felt like "troubled guys" were the only types of roles he was being offered, and he knows when it began. "In Annie Hall, I played a suicidal guy who drives his car into traffic," he says in his matter-of-fact, stilted, utterly Walkenesque way. "Then in The Deer Hunter, which came immediately afterward, I shot myself in the head. I was playing these disturbed people. That might have been when that started." When asked if that bothered him, he plainly says, "Listen, I'm lucky."
http://www.rollingstone.com/
http://www.rollingstone.com/
One scene that's mentioned but not included was "More Cowbell", with Walken, Will Ferrell and Blue Oyster cult....funny....
13/ A sad story from Onion News on Caitlin, a 13 year old who was euthanized because she was brain dead......this problem is more common than you might think.....three minutes......
The parents of 13-year old Caitlin Teagart have decided to end her life, saying she can now do nothing but lay on the couch and whine about things being "gay."
14/ If you are like me you just tape the shows you are interested in, regardless of which channel or network it's on......so this story about CBS was fascinating.....
For instance did you know CBS is the conservative's network.....
It's even bringing back the "schlubby guy with a hot wife" trope with the new Kevin James vehicle Kevin Can Wait. Erinn Hayes plays his wife.CBS
Every May, the TV networks announce their fall schedules to advertisers at an event called the upfronts. They aim to sell their new shows to ad buyers at the highest possible price, while the ad buyers try to stay skeptical. It's an antiquated ritual that, nonetheless, is enormously important to the business of TV, and we'll be there all week.
Everything you need to know about television in the year 2016 you could learn by watching NBC's upfront presentation, immediately followed by CBS's presentation.
CBS and NBC are the top two networks on television, with CBS maintaining the edge. They achieved their respective statuses by programming solid, meat-and-potatoes TV — by which I mean lots of crime shows that might not be sexy for critics to write about but are watched by millions of people anyway.
15/ It just keeps getting worse in our corrupt, profoundly stupid state......the DEP is caving to the oil and gas companies who want to start fracking.....
Florida Proposes Tripling Amount Of Benzene That Can Be Polluted Into State Waters
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
For the first time in over 25 years, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is proposing to revise its restrictions on what toxic chemicals can be discharged into surface water — but environmentalists worry that the proposed standards, which would triple the amount of a toxic chemical called benzene allowed to be discharged into surface waters like rivers and lakes, are meant more to entice fracking companies than keep Floridians safe.
16/ Floriduh Part 2.....
Scott Maxwell with a story that if you weren't already disgusted with our Governor and Republican State Legislature would be shattering news....as it is, it's ho hum, heard it all before about the scum that "lead" us.
The Rick Scott appointees on the Florida Foreclosure Finance Committee didn't bother to ask for $250 million in federal funds.....because our scabrous, pus ridden boil of a Governor doesn't like to accept money from the Feds.....
You elected him.....so suck it up.
Florida Didn't Bother to Apply for $250 Million in Foreclosure Assistance Funds
Thanks to a toxic combination of arrogant and unscrupulous lenders and irresponsible and overambitious homebuyers, the Sunshine State became the epicenter of the housing collapse.
The problem was so severe that that federal government intervened. The banks got trillions. Struggling homeowners were given a pittance by comparison.
Still, the help to those facing foreclosure worked well in many of the hardest-hit states.
Not as well, though, in Florida.
Why? Because Florida officials didn't want it to work.
Todays video - lads - one for you....."Ozzyman" with a two minute look at the running of the bulls......violence and salty language galore!
Todays Cinderella joke
Cinderella is now 95 years old.
One sunny afternoon out of nowhere, appeared the
After a fulfilling life with the now dead prince,
she happily sits upon her rocking chair, watching
she happily sits upon her rocking chair, watching
the world go by from her front porch, with a cat
named Bob for companionship.
One sunny afternoon out of nowhere, appeared the
Fairy godmother.
Cinderella said, 'Fairy Godmother, what are you
doing here after all these years'?
The fairy godmother replied, 'Cinderella, you have
lived an exemplary life since I last saw you. Is there
anything for which your heart still yearns?'
Cinderella was taken aback, overjoyed, and after some
thoughtful consideration, she uttered her first wish:
'the prince was wonderful, but not much of an investor.
I'm living hand to mouth on my disability cheques, and
I wish I were wealthy beyond comprehension.
Instantly her rocking chair turned into solid gold.
Cinderella said,
'Ooh, thank you, Fairy Godmother'
The fairy godmother replied,
'It is the least that I can do.
What do you want for your second wish?'
Cinderella looked down at her frail body, and said,
'I wish I were young and full of the beauty and youth
I once had.'
At once, her wish became reality, and her beautiful
young visage returned. Cinderella felt stirrings inside
her that had been dormant for years.
And then the fairy godmother spoke once more:
'You have one more wish; what shall it be?'
Cinderella looks over to the frightened cat in the
corner and says, 'I wish for you to transform Bob,
my old cat, into a kind and handsome young man.'
Magically, Bob suddenly underwent so fundamental
a change in his biological make-up that, when he stood
before her, he was a man so beautiful the likes of him
neither she nor the world had ever seen.
The fairy godmother said, 'Congratulations, Cinderella, enjoy your new life.'
With a blazing shock of bright blue electricity, the fairy godmother was gone as suddenly as she appeared.
For a few eerie moments,
Bob and Cinderella looked into each other's eyes.
Cinderella sat, breathless, gazing at the most beautiful,
stunningly perfect man she had ever seen.
Then Bob walked over to Cinderella, who sat transfixed
in her rocking chair, & held her close in his young
muscular arms.
He leaned in close, blowing her golden hair with his warm breath as he whispered...
'Bet you're sorry now that you cut my nuts off.'
Todays infidelity joke
A man returns home a day early from a business trip. It's after midnight. While en-route home, he asks the cabby if he would be a witness. The man suspects his wife is having an affair, and he wants to catch her in the act. For $100, the cabby agrees.
Quietly arriving home, the husband and cabby tip toe into the bedroom. The husband switches on the lights, yanks the blanket back and there is his wife, naked with a man.
The husband puts a gun to the naked man's head.
The wife shouts, 'Don't do it! I lied when I told you I inherited money'.
HE paid for the Porsche I gave you.
HE paid for your new 25 ft. Ranger Fishing Boat ..
HE paid for your Packer season tickets.
HE paid for our house at the lake.
HE paid for your Golf Trip to St Andrews and your new 4 x 4.
HE paid for our country club membership. and
HE even pays the monthly dues!'
Shaking his head from side-to-side, the husband lowers the gun.
He looks over at the cabby and says, 'What would you do'?
The cabby replies, 'I'd cover him with that blanket before he catches a cold.'
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