1/ Frank Rich on the news of the week.....excellent as always.....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today: Trumpcare’s CBO score, Trump’s first foreign trip, and a Trump-induced late-night ratings boon for Stephen Colbert.
The Congressional Budget Office released its long-awaited analysis of the Republican health-care-reform bill yesterday, finding that 14 million people would lose health insurance next year, 23 million would be without their insurance within a decade, and 90 percent of the spending reductions would essentially fund tax cuts. How much should these numbers concern the GOP?
The CBO analysis only confirms what we already knew before Trumpcare passed the House: Its preexisting condition is terminal. The failed GOP effort to “repeal and replace Obamacare” amounts to medical malpractice on an epic scale and will usher in a world of pain for millions of Americans, many of them in Donald Trump’s base.
2/ Jared Kushner - the enigma of the Trump administration, the confidante and son in law of the President with an incredible amount of responsibility.....so who is he? This investigation by the Times into The Kushner Companies gives us a clue.....and it isn't good.....
Jared Kushner’s Other
Real Estate Empire
The townhouse on High Seas Court in the Cove Village development, in the Baltimore suburb of Essex, was not exactly the Cape Cod retreat that its address implied: It was a small unit looking onto a parking lot, the windows of its two bedrooms so high and narrow that a child would have had to stand on a chair to see out of them. But to Kamiia Warren, who moved into the townhouse in 2004, it was a refuge, and a far cry from the East Baltimore neighborhood where she grew up. “I mean, there were bunny rabbits all hopping around,” she told me recently.
In the townhouse next door lived an older woman with whom Warren became friendly, even doing her grocery shopping once in a while. But over the course of a few months, the woman started acting strangely. She began accosting Warren’s visitors. She shouted through the walls during the day. And at night she banged on the wall, right where Warren kept the bassinet in which her third child slept, waking him up.
3/ Jimmy Kimmel Is getting pretty funny with his Trump commentaries.....here he tells us what went on with thump's visit to the Pope.....four great minutes....
On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel told his viewers that it had been a historic, holy day. “Maybe even an a-hole-y day,” Kimmel said—because “His Holiness met His Bigliness at the Vatican.” Like every late-night host, Kimmel went hard on Donald Trump’s visit to the Vatican—particularly the president’s meeting with Pope Francis, and the resulting awkward family photo co-starring Melania, Ivanka, a few black veils, and a very disgruntled looking pope.
“The pope made it clear that he would like our president to join him in promoting peace, giving aid to the poor, and protecting our environment,” Kimmel said of the meeting. “The pope is very persuasive, but unfortunately, Trump is in year 70 of his 100-year deal with the devil, and he’s got a no-trade clause, so it’s unlikely he’ll switch teams.”
4/ Rachel Maddow was a guest on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and it's truly a pleasure to watch two intelligent and articulate people muse on our politics and country......two parts, eight and four minutes....
Rachel Maddow recently became the highest-rated cable news host. On “The Late Show,” she told Stephen Colbert that she had begun to feel the Trump administration may have lost some of its ability to manipulate the media.
“With this trip, The Washington Post announces Friday night that there’s a significant ‘person of interest’ working actively in the White House as a senior adviser to the president. And so now we’re trying to figure out who the person of interest is in this F.B.I. probe who’s currently working in the White House and isn’t one of the people who’s on the trip with him — and then mysteriously Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon got sent home early today. What are they going to be doing? I don’t know but Mike Flynn’s pleading the Fifth. I feel like they don’t really get to make their own news anymore.” — RACHEL MADDOW“Once you’re the first president in American history who’s under counterintelligence investigation by the F.B.I. and likely under a criminal obstruction of justice probe, for something that you openly committed and then bragged about to the Russians before you bragged about it on NBC News, you don’t get to make your own news anymore. At this point the news of the Trump administration is the news of people investigating it and figuring out what’s really going on.” — RACHEL MADDOW
5/ This 19 minute speech by Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans, has gone viral.....he explains clearly why his city is removing the Confederate statues, and is articulate and persuasive.......unless you're a Redneck....
These are hard days of coarse language — of tweets and catcalls that appeal to the worst in us, not the best. Maybe that’s why a big, sweeping, old-fashioned speech delivered in New Orleans on Friday made such an impression on me. It was a reprieve. It was an antidote.
But it also addressed matters that are forever tripping us up — race, history, healing — better than anything I’ve heard or read in a long time. It was the masterpiece we needed at the moment we needed it, and I fear that it was lost in the brutal whirl of news these days. It shouldn’t be.
I’m referring to remarks by that city’s Democratic mayor, Mitch Landrieu, upon his removal of the last of several bitterly contested Confederate monuments there. And I’m thinking of the way his words responded to so much of what’s going on in this country without stooping to the rants that too many other Democrats are being drawn into and that represent a trap.
Although outrage is the order of the day, his speech trafficked in empathy. It felt like a holdover from a past that we left behind without exactly meaning to, and that we’d be wise to get back to.
6/ Seth Meyers analyses the cruelty behind the budget in his "A Closer Look" segment, and other issues from the trip abroad.....
Nine very good minutes....
Seth Meyers (NBC / Screengrab)
“Late Show” host Seth Meyers on Wednesday dismantled Donald Trump’s budget proposal, noting the president made “some truly savage cuts” to Medicaid and other social programs.
After noting Trump on Wednesday “stopped by the Vatican to completely bum out the Pope,” Meyers went in to note candidate Trump’s budget promises are vastly different from President Trump’s.
“I think they would f*cking hate each other,” Meyers said of President Trump and candidate Trump.
7/ Amusing.....
8/ An essay on the real Florida.....well written with obvious affection.....see if this fits your image of your state.....
Long before hanging chads and headlines like “Lakeland Woman Treats 6-Foot Gator Like a Baby,” my splintered family shared a unifying dream: Florida, where true happiness was to be found among palm trees and miles of beaches. It was where everything would be O.K. It was our promised land.
That may sound surprising. In an increasingly confused country, the Sunshine State is the place the rest of America always feels it can laugh at, because really, inside, it feels bad about itself.
9/ Most interesting story in the Times, a little tongue in cheek but with the premise Trump is our first A.I. President......it's quite persuasive.....[Artificial Intelligence!]
It is hard to imagine a more scathing indictment of our ability to read another’s thoughts and intentions than our inability to predict Donald Trump’s next move. From the gross pre-election misjudgments to postelection bafflement, the best pundits are at a loss to accurately anticipate his response to matters like North Korean military aggressiveness or his moment-by-moment political gyrations and opinion reversals. Labeling Trump a narcissist, psychopath, megalomaniac or attention-impaired, or all of the above, might feel explanatory, but even when armed with the best psychoanalytic insights, we have no idea what he will do when presented with a new or unforeseen circumstance.
If conventional psychology isn’t up to the task, perhaps we should step back and consider a tantalizing sci-fi alternative — that Trump doesn’t operate within conventional human cognitive constraints, but rather is a new life form, a rudimentary artificial intelligence-based learning machine.
10/ Two very amusing minutes of Stephen Colbert explaining the math behind the Trump budget....
"It turns out that the entire budget is based on a $2 trillion math error," said Colbert, referencing reports stating that the proposed tax cuts, which were announced Tuesday, are meant to boost economic growth enough to pay for $2 trillion in spending within 10 years. However, according to Time, "The tax cuts should also be revenue-neutral, meaning that money is already supposed to pay for the revenue lost from the tax cuts."
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called the mistake "a logical error of the kind that would justify failing a student in an introductory economics course."
Colbert said, however, that "there is a simple explanation for how this happened: Donald Trump is an idiot."
"Or," he continued, "he's lying."
11/ Most people find it very difficult to admit they made a wrong decision......like Trump voters....but this
story explains why you can never get through to them......
Despite your best intentions and efforts, it is inevitable: At some point in your life, you will be wrong.
Mistakes can be hard to digest, so sometimes we double down rather than face them. Our confirmation bias kicks in, causing us to seek out evidence to prove what we already believe. The car you cut off has a small dent in its bumper, which obviously means that it is the other driver’s fault.
Psychologists call this cognitive dissonance — the stress we experience when we hold two contradictory thoughts, beliefs, opinions or attitudes. For example, you might believe you are a kind and fair person, so when you rudely cut someone off, you experience dissonance. To cope with it, you deny your mistake and insist the other driver should have seen you, or you had the right of way even if you didn’t.
“Cognitive dissonance is what we feel when the self-concept — I’m smart, I’m kind, I’m convinced this belief is true — is threatened by evidence that we did something that wasn’t smart, that we did something that hurt another person, that the belief isn’t true,” said Carol Tavris, a co-author of the book “Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me).”
12/ Scott Maxwell with an excellent column in the Orlando Sentinel on how our corrupt, dysfunctional Republican Legislature is continuing to ruin the public school system......disgusting, evil bastards.....
Imagine for a moment that you went to the grocery store to buy a loaf of bread.
But when you got there, the store manager said the only way you could buy bread would be for you to also buy a gallon of milk, 10 packs of adult diapers, a box of Popsicles, some day-old pastries, a 5-pound pork butt, three gallons of orange juice, a tin of anchovies and a fistful of lottery tickets.
That would sound like a scam, right?
Well, welcome to the way the Florida Legislature handled public education this year — legislation by scam.
A cram-scam, in fact.
Instead of carefully considering education proposals one at a time, Republican leaders went behind closed doors to cram 35 different proposals — rules on everything from sunscreen use to charter-schools incentives — into a single, 278-page, take-it-or-leave-it bill unveiled at the last minute.
Todays Music Video
You of course have never heard of Haim, the girl band of three sisters who just performed on SNL....but your granddaughters have.....here they sing "I Want You Back"....
Keep your eyes on the sister in yellow.....
Todays love story joke
A man and a woman who had never met before, but who were both married to other people,
found themselves assigned to the same sleeping room on a transcontinental train.
Though initially embarrassed and uneasy over sharing a room, they were both
very tired and fell asleep quickly, he in the upper berth and she in the lower.
At 1:00 AM, the man leaned down and gently woke the woman saying, 'Ma'am,
I'm sorry to bother you, but would you be willing to reach into the closet to get me a second
found themselves assigned to the same sleeping room on a transcontinental train.
Though initially embarrassed and uneasy over sharing a room, they were both
very tired and fell asleep quickly, he in the upper berth and she in the lower.
At 1:00 AM, the man leaned down and gently woke the woman saying, 'Ma'am,
I'm sorry to bother you, but would you be willing to reach into the closet to get me a second
blanket? I'm awfully cold.'
'I have a better idea,' she replied, 'Just for tonight, let's pretend that we're married.'
'Wow! That's a great idea!' he exclaimed.
'Good,' she replied, 'Get your own fucking blanket.'
After a moment of silence, he farted.
'I have a better idea,' she replied, 'Just for tonight, let's pretend that we're married.'
'Wow! That's a great idea!' he exclaimed.
'Good,' she replied, 'Get your own fucking blanket.'
After a moment of silence, he farted.
Todays oldie joke
Morris and his wife Esther went to the state fair every year,
And every year Morris would say, "Esther, I'd like to ride in that helicopter."
And every year Morris would say, "Esther, I'd like to ride in that helicopter."
Esther always replied, "I know Morris, but that helicopter ride is fifty dollars, And fifty dollars is fifty dollars."
One year Esther and Morris went to the fair, and Morris said, "Esther, I'm 85 years old. If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance."
One year Esther and Morris went to the fair, and Morris said, "Esther, I'm 85 years old. If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance."
To this, Esther replied, "Morris that helicopter ride is fifty dollars, and fifty dollars is fifty dollars."
The pilot overheard the couple and said, "Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don't say a word
I won't charge you a penny!
The pilot overheard the couple and said, "Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don't say a word
I won't charge you a penny!
But if you say one word it's fifty dollars."
Morris and Esther agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still not a word.
Morris and Esther agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still not a word.
When they landed, the pilot turned to Morris and said, "By golly, I did everything I
could to get you to yell out so I'd get paid, but you didn't. I'm impressed!'
Morris replied, "Well, to tell you the truth, I almost said something when Esther fell out, but you know, fifty dollars is fifty dollars!"
Todays redneck joke
An extraordinarily handsome man decided he had the responsibility to marry the perfect woman so they could produce beautiful children beyond compare.
With that as his mission he began to search for the perfect woman.
Shortly thereafter he met a Redneck who had three stunning, gorgeous daughters that positively took his breath away. So he explained his mission to the Redneck and asked for permission to marry one of them.
The Redneck simply replied, " They're lookin' to getmarried, so you came to the right place. Look 'emover and pick the one you want."
The man dated the first daughter. The next day theRedneck asked for the man's opinion.
"Well," said the man, "she's just a weeeeee bit, notthat you can hardly notice ... pigeon-toed."
The Redneck nodded and suggested the man date one of the other girls; so the man went out with the second daughter.
The next day, the Redneck again asked how things went.
"Well, "the man replied, "she's just a weeeee bit, not that you can hardly tell,...... cross-eyed."
The Redneck nodded and suggested he date the third girl to see if things might be better. So he did.
The next morning the man rushed in exclaiming,
"She's perfect, just perfect. She's the one I want to marry."
So they were wed right away.Months later the baby was born.When the man visited the nursery he was horrified: the baby was the ugliest, most pathetic human you can imagine.He rushed to his father-in-law and asked how such a thing could happen considering the beauty of the parents.
"Well," explained the Redneck, "she was just a weeeee bit, not that you could hardly tella weeeeeee bit......pregnant when you met her."
