1/ George Monblot in the Guardian with 13 crises we are facing right now.....his list is European centric, but in this global world everything financial and commercial is connected.....something Americans and particularly Trump people don't understand.
His list is not in any detail about the serious stuff, but there are a couple of items new to me....harvests is one, migration, automation and Marie Le Pen are others....
From Trump to climate change, this multiheaded crisis presages collapse. And there’s no hope of exiting the ‘other side’ if political alternatives are shut down
Please don’t read this unless you are feeling strong. This is a list of 13 major crises that, I believe, confront us. There may be more. Please feel free to add to it or to knock it down. I’m sorry to say that it’s not happy reading.
1. Donald Trump
The next occupant of the White House will be a man who appears to possess no capacity for restraint, balance or empathy, but a bottomless capacity for revenge and vindictiveness. He has been granted a clean sweep of power, with both houses and the supreme court in his pocket. He is surrounding himself with people whose judgment and knowledge of the world are, to say the least, limited. He will take charge of the world’s biggest nuclear and conventional arsenals, and the most extensive surveillance and security apparatus any state has ever developed.
2. His national security adviser
In making strategic military decisions, he has a free hand, with the capacity to act even without the nominal constraint of Congress. His national security adviser, Michael T Flynn, is a dangerous extremist.
2/ Martha Stewart, yes she, at the Justin Bieber roast.....some cringeworthy but amazing jokes indeed! An excellent five minutes.....
Who knew domestic queen, Martha Stewart, could be the most filthy, hilarious, deliciously evil presenter at the Justin Bieber roast on Comedy Central? This woman was given just under 6 minutes for her segment, and in that time she ruled EVERYTHING.
Above is a rundown from Entertainment Tonight on the top three presenters, but our vote for the very best is Martha. If you want to just watch her, pause the video above and check it out below.
3/ Bet you try it more than once! Damn - I didn't know I was 41!
This simulates you in the driver's seat of a car. You're driving down a road, when you see a big red hand flash in front of you. You have to put on the brakes. Then, the Reaction Time Test tells you how old you are, when it comes to driving.
The test is based on reaction times of 2,000 people ages 18 and over. The Reaction Time Test plotted their reaction times by age; it matches your reaction time to those averages. Some of their results may surprise you. The Reaction Time Test found that left-handed people and men have slightly better reaction times than the average person. |
4/ Robert Reich with a plan to recharge the Democratic Party......which has to happen if Dems are ever going to win again....
During the 2016 primary, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich was an outspoken supporter of Bernie Sanders. When he threw his weight behind Hillary Clinton's bid in the general election, he did so while also calling for the formation of a new progressive party to take up Sanders' cause after the election. In the wake of Democrats' humiliating defeat in November – not just for the presidency, but in a number of Congressional races – the UC Berkeley professor and co-founder of Inequality Media says the Democratic Party must be rebuilt from the ground up, and he has some ideas about how it ought to be done.
It won't be easy, he says. "We are facing something far worse than many people would like to admit. This is not a normal transition of power, and Donald Trump will not be a normal president," Reich told Rolling Stoneone week after the election. "I think a lot of people are in denial about how bad this all is or could be or will be. A lot of people want to normalize this. It is not normal."
"This requires a completely different kind of politics in response, and the Democratic Party needs to think at a much, much larger and more ambitious level than a lot of the Democrats I've been talking to over the last week have been."
5/ Senate Democrats, the last hope for our democracy, are going to blow it again......
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer is plunging ahead with his plan to help Donald Trump pass a gigantic infrastructure plan. One apparent reason for this decision is a misunderstanding about how public opinion works — a mistaken belief that Democratic senators will get credit for working with Trump, when in reality the primary credit will flow to Trump, and the secondary credit to Republicans in Congress, even those who might oppose popular bills. But an additional reason for this strategy is a failure to understand the priorities of the Republican Party. Not only Senate Democrats but also other liberals — including some critical of their strategy — believe they are cleverly outflanking the Republican conservatives who hope to enact a radical right-wing domestic agenda. In reality, they are playing directly into their hands.
6/ Brian McFadden from the Times.....
7/ The thoughtful Benjamin Studebaker with an analysis assigning at least some of the blame for the rise of Trump to President Obama.....read this, then decide if he's right....
Barack Obama’s Role in Giving Us the Trump Presidency
by Benjamin Studebaker
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is remembered as a great philosopher and successful military commander, but he is also remembered for picking his feckless son Commodus as his successor, an emperor who infamously cared more about making showy performances as a gladiator than he did governing the empire. Barack Obama is still a popular president–his favorability rat
One of the misfortunes of democratic politics is that the things you need to say and do to win in the short term often hamper you in the long-run.
8/ Sh#t Southern Women say.....four charming minutes of southern ladies mangling the English language....amusing.....
The Southern Women Channel on YouTube stars Julia Fowler, creator, writer and director of the series, Katherine Bailess, Sheila Hawkins and Delaine Yates. Logan Browning also makes guest appearances. All but Hawkins, a producer, are Southern-born and raised actresses living in Los Angeles.
They're baaaaack! Our favorite southern belles are back to show us first-hand all the sh*t stuff Southern Women tend to say. Among the highlights? "Honey, she's so fat when she hauls ass she has to make two trips." Other things to look forward to? Referring to an item as either a "thingamajig," a "doohickie" or a "whatchamadoodle."
9/ If you are still upset or saddened by the election results, this is a 12 step plan to get your head right again....
Traumatized by the election results, many Americans are asking: What now? Here are steps that any of us can take that can make a difference at the margins. Onward!
1. I WILL accept that my side lost, but I won’t acquiesce in injustice and I will gird for battle on issues I care about. I will call or write my member of Congress and express my opposition to mass deportation, to cutting 22 million people off health insurance, to nominations of people who are unqualified or bigoted, to reduced access to contraception and cancer screenings. Better yet, I’ll attend my representative’s town meeting and put him or her on the spot.
2. I WILL try to do small things in my own life, recognizing that they are inadequate but at least a start:
10/ Blues Traveler with "Hook", a familiar song made new by an incredibly inventive video.....spot the celebs......
The music video was directed by Frank W. Ockenfels and depicts a man, played by game show host Ken Ober, channel surfing through late-night television. On every channel different people are lip synching to "Hook", including beauty contestants, a Charles Foster Kane-type politician, and Paul Shaffer on keyboards.[6] Shaffer also played keyboards on the second track off the album Four, entitled "Stand."
11/ Live in South Florida, or Tampa Bay, or Jacksonville? Or do you live on a waterway on the East Coast? Then read this in depth story from the Times on why you might want to be thinking about selling....
MIAMI — Real estate agents looking to sell coastal properties usually focus on one thing: how close the home is to the water’s edge. But buyers are increasingly asking instead how far back it is from the waterline. How many feet above sea level? Is it fortified against storm surges? Does it have emergency power and sump pumps?
Rising sea levels are changing the way people think about waterfront real estate. Though demand remains strong and developers continue to build near the water in many coastal cities, homeowners across the nation are slowly growing wary of buying property in areas most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
A warming planet has already forced a number of industries — coal, oil, agriculture and utilities among them — to account for potential future costs of a changed climate. The real estate industry, particularly along the vulnerable coastlines, is slowly awakening to the need to factor in the risks of catastrophic damage from climate change, including that wrought by rising seas and storm-driven flooding.
But many economists say that this reckoning needs to happen much faster and that home buyers urgently need to be better informed. Some analysts say the economic impact of a collapse in the waterfront property market could surpass that of the bursting dot-com and real estate bubbles of 2000 and 2008.
The fallout would be felt by property owners, developers, real estate lenders and the financial institutions that bundle and resell mortgages.
12/ Some good travel apps......we have used three of these, and these work - GasBuddy, Hotel Tonight, SeatGuru.....
Most travelers already know how to search Kayak for flights or Hotels.com for rooms. But holiday travel season is a monster that calls for reinforcements.
We’ve compiled a lineup of the most highly regarded and expert-vetted travel appsthat will prevent headaches on your journey over the river, through the woods or to an exotic island. Take a look:
1. For cheap flights at the last minute: Hopper
For comprehensive ticket info, it really doesn’t get any better than Google Flights. The Hopper app, meanwhile, has special focus on price comparison over time, which lends extra confidence that you’re choosing the cheapest flight.
APP STORE
13/ Just in case you are tempted to buy any of these turkeys, here are 15 new cars to avoid, from Forbes....
New cars just aren’t what they used to be. No, we’re not getting all crotchety and decrying the evolution in styling and technological breakthroughs that have literally reinvented the automobile during the last quarter millennium. Rather, we’re bemoaning the fact that, unlike as in past model years, there’s a dearth of truly wretched cars on the market for us to openly and readily ridicule.
14/ We know the Everglades is in trouble, but do you know the details of why?
Thought so, that's why you should watch this pretty good seven minute video of our beautiful resource, and the water supply of South Florida.
Then you should remember that we all voted in 2014 for funds to buy the land south of Lake Okeechobee which will begin the restoration process, but Rick Scott and our other scum politicians have caved again to Big Sugar and pissed away our money on BS....
We have been posting a lot recently about the problems plaguing South Florida because of the way that natural water flows have been interrupted. For those of us not from the Sunshine State, however, the issues can be a little confusing. Here’s a great primer from Odyssey Earth–an educational website focused on the incredible biodiversity of Biscayne Bay, the Everglades and the surrounding environments. Host Richard S. Kern explains how massive public-works projects over the past hundred years have starved the “River of Grass” of fresh water, creating damaging hypersalinity in Florida Bay. That nutrient-rich water from Lake Okeechobee that should be filtered through the Everglades is instead poising the coastal habitats to the east and west.
15/ Good TV - "Incorporated", SyFy on Wednesdays....
I was hooked at the plot premise:
The series is set in 2074, after catastrophic climate change has undone the old world order. Spiga Biotech is among a handful of mega-corporations that have replaced crumbled governments and now battle for dwindling natural resources......
Looks like it might be good! Crank up the VCR......
For a medium produced largely by corporations, television has a pretty dim view of them.
The latest example is “Incorporated,” beginning Wednesday, Nov. 30, on Syfy (part of NBCUniversal), with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon among its executive producers. The series is set in 2074, after catastrophic climate change has undone the old world order. Spiga Biotech is among a handful of mega-corporations that have replaced crumbled governments and now battle for dwindling natural resources while demanding absolute loyalty from employees, on penalty of psychic torture and other punishments.
In its vision of a corporate dystopia, “Incorporated” builds on earlier shows that positioned powerful businesses as puppet masters. Such series tap into anxieties about the dominance of corporations in our lives — fears that have intensified after events like the Great Recession and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which permitted more corporate money into politics. They also betray an unease about working for large companies and, perhaps, a deep-seated human desire to know that someone is in control, whatever the tactics.
"Incorporated " trailer - 90 seconds.....
Todays video - "People Are Awesome 2016".....a compilation of video snippets of some amazing stunts, but no one gets hurt.....music is distracting .....
Todays blond jokes
One day a blond walks into a doctors office with both of her ears burnt.
The doctor askes her what had happened.
She says, "well... when I was ironing my work suit the phone rang and I mistakanly 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."
Todays 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
their only food.
Each day one of the lawyers would climb to the top to see if he could spot
a rescue boat coming...
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.
|
Todays aviation joke
Air Show Disaster -
AIRCRAFT HITS FOUR BUILDINGS
This is tough to see. It just shows the dangers of attending these events.
Amazing photo below shows great detail.
The pilot at low level had no control over his aircraft.
It narrowly misses a crowd gathered for the air show and slams into four buildings.
One can only imagine the horror of the occupants inside those buildings.
...
...
...
...
No one was killed, but it probably
scared the shit out of them.
AIRCRAFT HITS FOUR BUILDINGS
This is tough to see. It just shows the dangers of attending these events.
Amazing photo below shows great detail.
The pilot at low level had no control over his aircraft.
It narrowly misses a crowd gathered for the air show and slams into four buildings.
One can only imagine the horror of the occupants inside those buildings.
...
...
...
...
No one was killed, but it probably
scared the shit out of them.
