1/ Matt Taibbi with his look at the Republican Convention - it's one of Taibbi's long stories and he touches on a lot of politics, philosophy and insight into the madness that has enveloped the Republican Party. Taibbi is of the school that is so appalled at Trump he assumes he won't be President - again, we aren't so sure.....
Illustration by Victor Juhasz
Hell, yes, it was crazy. You rubbed your eyes at the sight of it, as in, "Did that really just happen?"
It wasn't what we expected. We thought Donald Trump's version of the Republican National Convention would be a brilliantly bawdy exercise in Nazistic excess.
We expected thousand-foot light columns, a 400-piece horn section where the delegates usually sit (they would be in cages out back with guns to their heads). Onstage, a chorus line of pageant girls in gold bikinis would be twerking furiously to a techno version of "New York, New York" while an army of Broadway dancers spent all four days building a Big Beautiful Wall that read winning, the ceremonial last brick timed to the start of Donald's acceptance speech...
But nah. What happened instead was just sad and weird, very weird. The lineup for the 2016 Republican National Convention to nominate Trump felt like a fallback list of speakers for some ancient UHF telethon, on behalf of a cause like plantar-wart research.
2/ Friday night's Bill Maher "New Rules", and it was a good one......about the "Notorious HRC".....a pretty good five minutes.....
Bill Maher reasoned on Real Time Friday night that Hillary Clinton‘s best mode of attack might be to actually embody the supervillain role that conservatives have been casting her as for decades.
Voters “don’t want America’s nicest grandma. They want the wolf that puts a grandma in its teeth,” he said. “They want a ruthless Mafia boss who will protect their frightened souls, which is why Hillary has to own all the nasty things the haters say and run as the Notorious H.R.C.”
3/ The always insightful Frank Rich on Hillary's speech, Trump and Putin and Tim Kaine......if you watched her speech, you are probably feeling better about her candidacy....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today: Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Trump’s Putin comments, and Tim Kaine.
Accepting the Democratic nomination last night, Hillary Clinton noted that, in her life of public service, “the service part has always come easier … than the public part.” Did her speech show you anything about her that you hadn’t been expecting?
A little. This was about as good as it is going to get with a Hillary Clinton speech. There was no expectation that she could match the tough acts she followed — Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Joe Biden — and she didn’t. But she was confident and at ease, not always a given for her in public appearances, and she did two things very well.
4/ Benjamin Studebaker on Bernie and his surrender to the DNC machine.....this is a challenging post that assumes that now Ms. Clinton has dispatched her pesky left-wing rival she will now gravitate to the center where she is comfortable. This may be true, but Hillary certainly said all the right things in her speech.....
We [hopefully] will see if this post comes true.....
Bernie Sanders Got Nothing for Endorsing Clinton
by Benjamin Studebaker
Last night, Bernie Sanders gave a speech at the DNC convention in which he offered his unqualified support for Hillary Clinton. Sanders argues that Clinton has earned his support by agreeing to changes in the Democratic Party Platform that bring it more in line with Sanders’ views. But if we take a closer look at what Sanders received in exchange for his endorsement, it’s clear he’s getting a raw deal.
There is a big problem with relying on the party platform–it’s non-binding. There is nothing that compels Democratic candidates to follow it. Indeed, Democratic presidents typically achieve very little of what’s in the platform. The 2008 party platform made a number of bold promises that went unfulfilled:
5/ Samantha Bee's reaction to the news that Roger Ailes is gone.....a raucous two minutes.....very funny.....
Samantha Bee gleefully lays into Roger Ailes and Fox News on Full Frontal. Photo: TBS
Bee described herself as someone who is “forced” to watch Fox News for the sake of comedy, something that was certainly true when she was a correspondent on The Daily Show and delivered the most perfect takedown of The Five that a hate-watching fan of that waking nightmare could ever hope for.Now, for those of you who aren’t forced to watch it for your comedy jobs, Fox News is the only 24 hour news network to feature a strategically placed leg cam to showcase the most qualified body parts of its female contributors. Plus the daily women’s show trading on the titillating tension between owning a harem and fear of emasculation. So yeah, turns out the guy who runs that network is kind of a creep. Who would have guessed? Roger Ailes made Fox News an unstoppable powerhouse by discovering the secret to big ratings. What viewers really want is to be furiously angry while also having a boner. The anger part of the arousal was achieved through Roger’s uncanny ability to take a thing that may or may not exist, put an ominous spin on it, and then force feed it to us all day like a foie gras goose until we were terrified. Fox News was his masterpiece. A right-wing nightmare factory powered by white resentment and relentless misinformation, churning out propaganda 24/7 and making family Thanksgivings unbearable for 20 years.
6/ The big non-story in this election is voter fraud - no, not individuals voting twice etc. but the manipulation of the voting machines used in Republican states, which is real. This is a dangerous issue, and no one is talking about it...
s the Democratic Convention opens in Philadelphia, there’s just one one clear message that matters from the Republicans: Donald Trump will be within ten points of Hillary Clinton in the fall election.
Thus, unless the Democrats do something about the issue of election protection, it will be within the power of key GOP swing state governors to give Donald Trump the presidency.
For all its problems, the wildly disorganized and fractious gathering in Cleveland all boiled down to Trump’s final speech. It was rambling and often incoherent. But it delivered the classic strongman message: You need ME to protect you.
Given the chaos, violence, and injustice of imperial America in 2016, that message is almost certain to sell with enough Americans to keep Trump close enough to Hillary Clinton to allow the election to be electronically stripped and flipped.
In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama was able to overcome these barriers with a huge popular margin in more states than the GOP could reasonably steal.
This year, in a close election, given how the mechanics of our election system operate, the decision of who will enter the White House will be in the hands of the GOP governors of such swing states as Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Arizona.
7/ Our second Sam Bee on the RNC Convention.....incredibly funny and vicious! Mind you she has a lot of material to work with....
Samantha Bee gave a grim recap of last week’s Republican National Convention. The comedian kicked off the segment with a blood-spattered montage of former presidents so appalled by the state of modern politics that they all commit suicide.
Bee used the same dark humor throughout the skit, suggesting Republicans at the event were split into two camps: "some enthusiastic as a dog going for a car ride, others enthusiastic as a dog going for its final car ride." Later, a GOP elephant exploded on screen behind the Full Frontal host, torn between Trump and his former primary opponent, Ted Cruz. "My graphics department shouldn’t be dismembering elephants," Bee deadpanned. "That’s Donald Trump Jr.’s job." (Trump’s sons have taken flak for big-game hunting in Africa.)
8/ Our second excellent piece by Frank Rich on how the media performed in this 2016 Presidential race.....an interesting analysis of the issues, including the refusal by the Clinton campaign to have Madame do any interviews or press conferences.....
Rich makes us think......
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, the topic is the media and its shortcomings, in conjunction with New York’s cover story.
Did the media screw up in its coverage of the Donald Trump campaign? If so, how?
Pundits and poll analysts famously screwed up by consistently underestimating his chances, in some conspicuous cases nearly up to the point when he locked up the nomination. But I don’t buy the widespread notion that the news media has given Trump a free ride by bestowing $2 billion worth of airtime on his primary campaign or by failing to vet him seriously. Yes, he got a ton of television coverage, but he did so by creating news — outrageous and infuriating news, perhaps, but news nonetheless. By contrast, most of his Republican opponents favored scripted public appearances that generated little if any news. Hillary Clinton suffered a media shortfall for the same reason: She often has gone out of her way to avoid committing news, and, as of July, she had not given a single press conference in 2016.
9/ John Oliver with one of his classic political comedy looks at the RNC Convention.....a wonderful 11 minutes.....
“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver on Sunday devoted his main segment to last week’s Republican National Convention, which he called, “the most apocalyptic thing ever to happen to (Cleveland), and bear in mind their river has repeatedly caught fire.”
A running portrayal of GOP nominee Donald Trump focused on his business and management acumen. Among speakers attesting to these attributes were UFC president Dana White and Trump’s daughter and business associate Ivanka.
“That message of Trump as a skilled manager was somewhat undercut by the fact the entire convention was a mismanaged shit show,” Oliver said. “From Melania Trump using a partly plagiarized speech to Ted Cruz being booed off the stage for not endorsing Donald Trump to the fact that, supposedly, Donald Trump knew Ted Cruz wouldn’t endorse him and didn’t care.”
10/ An interview with a retired Episcopal Bishop on "Dateline NBC"......telling some truths about organized religion.....3 minutes.....
Spong: I don’t think Hell exists. I happen to believe in life after death, but I don’t think it’s got a thing to do with reward and punishment. Religion is always in the control business, and that’s something people don’t really understand. It’s in a guilt-producing control business. And if you have Heaven as a place where you’re rewarded for you goodness, and Hell is a place where you’re punished for your evil, then you sort of have control of the population. And so they create this fiery place which has quite literally scared the Hell out of a lot of people, throughout Christian history. And it’s part of a control tactic.
Morrison: But wait a minute. You’re saying that Hell, the idea of a place under the earth or somewhere you’re tormented for an eternity – is actually an invention of the church?
Spong: I think the church fired its furnaces hotter than anybody else. But I think there’s a sense in most religious life of reward and punishment in some form. The church doesn’t like for people to grow up, because you can’t control grown-ups. That’s why we talk about being born again. When you’re born again, you’re still a child. People don’t need to be born again. They need to grow up. They need to accept their responsibility for themselves and the world.
11/ "Beware of the Doghouse" is the title of this hilarious four minute skit on how husbands get in trouble, and what happens to them! Men - watch this and make sure you think before you buy the wrong present for the wife or girlfriend.
Ladies - please, please don't watch this.....please.....
JCPenney had some success last year with its Beware of the Doghouse holiday campaign. Yes, the Web site got millions of views. But I knew it had broken through when my father-in-law sent me the link, along with the message, "Too FUNNY!!!"
12/ One of the most interesting races in the country is the one for our US Senate seat, featuring "Liddle Marco" for the Republicans, and Alan Grayson and Patrick Murphy for the Democrats. Considering Grayson was for a term the Congressman for Mount Dora and many of our readers could have met him [I did], this story will really interest you. He was known as the "Democrat's Trump for his pithy remarks - [remember die quickly?]
It was written before his ex-wife came forward a couple of days ago alleging spousal abuse, but even though this may have sunk his campaign it's a fascinating analysis of Marco and Murphy, as well as Grayson.....
“Before I even got into the race, one of Murphy’s donors and I had lunch together and he told me, ‘If you run, they will destroy you.’ I asked, ‘Who’s they?’ And he said, ‘Harry Reid and the DSCC [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee].’ They’re certainly doing their best.”
Alan Grayson, the Florida representative and liberal firebrand hoping to win Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate seat, was attempting to explain the recent avalanche of explaining he’s had to do as he runs in the Democratic primary against his congressional colleague Patrick Murphy, the preferred candidate of the Democratic Establishment. About, for instance, the $16 million Cayman Islands hedge fund that he’s been operating as a sideline to his congressional duties (which Grayson insists is a “family investment partnership” registered in the offshore tax haven only because “the securities lawyers told us we had to do it that way”). Or about the 2015 annulment of his 25-year marriage to Lolita Grayson, the mother of his five children, who, it turned out, was not yet divorced from her first husband when she wed Grayson in 1990. (“I’ll sum it up for you,” Grayson told an Orlando television station in the midst of his nasty court battle with Lolita. “Gold diggers gotta dig.”)
Grayson, who is 58, is a large slab of a man with a giant head that wouldn’t look out of place on Easter Island and a mincing, splayfooted gait that resembles that of a penguin. Throw in his customary wardrobe of garish cowboy boots and novelty neckties that feature everything from Monopolymoney to rainbow peace signs, and he doesn’t call to mind a congressman so much as the villain in a Batman movie. He’s the only member of Congress whose desk is decorated with a plaque that reads: I HAVE FLYING MONKEYS AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE THEM!
13/ This is amusing, actually it could put you into hysterics but be warned - it's rude!
Sugarless Haribo Gummy Bear Reviews On Amazon Are The Most Insane Thing You’ll Read Today
1. From a review titled: “Just don’t. Unless it’s a gift for someone you hate.“
Why on earth would anyone buy these sugar-free bears after reviewers warned not to eat more than 15 at a time “unless you are trying to power wash your intestines”?
14/ Did you know Florida has a city for oligarchs? Of course not, it's a very secretive place but it's the City of Wellington in Western Palm Beach County, and the focus is horses.....
Really interesting story....and lots of pictures.....
A rider and her horse tackle an obstacle at one of WEF's featured competitions.Winter Equestrian Festival/Facebook
From the Springsteens to the Bloombergs, to the families of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, to Arab sheikhs and South American billionaires, it's a congregation of people with spectacular quantities of money.
No, they aren't gathering for some sort of business affair. They're coming for WEF: the Winter Equestrian Festival, which takes place every year from January to April on the hallowed grounds of the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. The 12-week WEF has been the longest equestrian event of its kind for several years running, and it attracts riders at all levels of the sport.
15/ It's enough to put you into a state of despair.....Rick Scott's boys have degraded our water quality again, prepping the rules to allow fracking in Florida......
We are actually in a State of Despair - Floriduh.....
Florida regulators voted to approve new water quality standards Tuesday that will increase the amount of cancer-causing toxins allowed in Florida’s rivers and streams under a plan that the state says will protect more Floridians than the current standards do.
The Environmental Regulation Commission voted 3-2 to approve a proposal drafted by state regulators that would impose new standards on 39 chemicals not currently regulated by the state, and revise the regulations on 43 other toxins, most of which are carcinogens.
“We have not updated these parameters since 1992. It is more good than harm,” said Cari Roth, a Tallahassee lawyer who represents developers on the governor-appointed commission and serves as its chair. “The practical effect is, it is not going to increase the amount of toxins going into our waters.”
But the proposal, based on a one-of-a-kind scientific method developed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and nicknamed “Monte Carlo,” is being vigorously criticized by environmental groups. They warn that the new standard would allow polluters to dump dangerous amounts of chemicals in high concentrations into Florida waters before they trigger the limits of the new rule, and let Florida adhere to standards that are weaker than federal guidelines.
Todays video - a compilation of 100 movie clips of dancing, set to "Uptown Funk"......you should be able to recognize at least half the movies.....very catchy, and cleverly done....four minutes.....
Todays religious joke
A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church, by hand.
He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript.So, the new monk goes to the Old Abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up!
In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.
The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."
He goes down into the dark caves
underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives,
in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the Old Abbot.So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing."We missed the R! We missed the R!
We missed the bloody R!"His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.
The young monk asks the old Abbot, "What's wrong, father?"With a choking voice, the old Abbot replies,"The word was ....
CELEBRATE!"
Todays Jewish jokes
YIDDISH CURSES FOR REPUBLICAN JEWS
May you be reunited in the world to come with your ancestors, who were
all socialist garment workers.
May you have a large store, and have it all dismantled by vulture capitalists.
May you grow so rich that your widow’s second husband is thrilled they
repealed the estate tax.
May you feast every day on chopped liver with onions, chicken soup
with dumplings, baked carp with horseradish, braised meat with
vegetable stew, latkes, and may every bite of it be contaminated with
E. Coli, because the government gutted the E.P.A.
May you sell everything and retire to Florida just as global warming makes it uninhabitable.
May you have a rare disease and need an operation that only one
surgeon in the world, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, is
able to perform. And may he be unable to perform it because he doesn’t
take your insurance. And may that Nobel Laureate be your son.
May you live to a ripe old age, and may the only people who come visit
you be Mormon missionaries.
May your state outlaw the morning-after pill the day before your
daughter comes home from the NFTY (North American Federation of Temple
Youth) convention.
May your son be elected President, and may you have no idea what you
did with his goddamn birth certificate
May the state of Arizona expand their definition of "suspected illegal
immigrants" to "anyone who doesn't hunt.”
May you live to a hundred and twenty without Social Security or Medicare.
May you grow like an onion with your head in the ground, and then may
the ground be fracked.
May you make a fortune, and lose it all in one of Sheldon Adelson's casinos.
May your child give his Bar Mitzvah speech on the genius of Ayn Rand.
May your insurance company decide constipation is a pre-existing condition.
May God give you a daughter-in-law who is as kind as she is beautiful,
as patient as she is rich, as wise as she is devoted, a virtuous woman
in every way. And then may a ballot initiative invalidate her marriage
to your Rebecca.
May the secretary your husband is schtupping depend on Planned
Parenthood for her birth control.
Todays lesbian joke
About a year ago we had this lesbian couple move in next door. I may not agree with certain lifestyles but they are very nice and very attractive people.
We have grown sort of fond of each other and they wanted to know what I wanted for Christmas.
So they bought me a nice Rolex.
I guess they misunderstood me when I said. “I wanna watch.”
