1/ The inimitable Matt Taibbi with a riff on Steve Bannon, the White House and the cesspool that is Washington..... excellent commentary....
Decades from now, if the planet is even inhabited by then, we will look back at one 72-hour period as the most crucial in the history of America's last president, Donald John Trump. Between the days of April 5th and 7th, 2017, the Washington political establishment tried to reform our madman president and instead only made him infinitely more dangerous, pushing us closer to doomsday than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis.
Welcome to the Trump era, the flushing-toilet-bowl stage of America's history, where every move any of us makes is part of a great swirling synergy sucking us with ever-greater alacrity down the hole of failure and destruction. Good news, bad news, it all heads in the same direction soon enough, after a spin or two around the bowl.
Wednesday, April 5th, began with what seemed like the greatest of news. Former Breitbart chief Steve Bannon, the Trump whisperer who had publicly pledged to destroy government from within, was on the outs for, among other things, calling the president's son-in-law a naughty word. A deluge of gleeful media leaks from the leakiest White House of all time exulted: The witch was dead, Bannon was sidelined, and an "axis of adults" had finally taken over as the key voices behind the president. We were saved!
A few spins of the bowl later, even the sidelining of Bannon turned into bad news.
2/ So true....
3/ Did the news MSNBC has now got a show hosted by Great Van Susteren raise one of your eyebrows? It should have.....the CEO of MSNBC Andy Lack is trying to make the only progressive network a centrist news outlet. i.e. he is out to destroy the only progressive news on the air.
Good story from Huffpo....
ANDY LACK
WASHINGTON ― On Friday, readers of the new morning email put out by Mike Allenawoke to a little nugget of news. “One of your favorites is getting their own MSNBC show,” he teased in the subject line.
That new host was none other than Nicolle Wallace, a former spokeswoman for President George W. Bush and, later, the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin.
New York magazine reported hours later that conservative activist and radio host Hugh Hewitt, already a regular contributor to MSNBC, was in talks with the network about a weekend show.
From outside, it might seem odd to see the premier liberal network veering right, even as liberals around the country are fired up to resist the administration of President Donald Trump.
But from inside, the news about Wallace and Hewitt was seen as just two more steps toward the full execution of the vision of Andy Lack, the NBC News executive who oversees MSNBC. He has made quite clear his plan to move the cable news network away from its bedrock liberalism and toward a more centrist approach personified by Brian Williams — even including hosts of a conservative bent, as typified by hosts like Megyn Kelly or Greta Van Susteren, who Lack brought over from Fox News.
4/ Stephen Colbert is getting better and better.....this is hip opener on Trumpcare.....a very funny seven minutes....
The late-night hosts are experts in comedy and absurdity, so, appropriately, they had a lot to say about Thursday’s vote in the House of Representatives, which inched Congress closer to repealing Obamacare.
“If hearing that raises your blood pressure, calm down. You can’t afford the medication anymore,” Stephen Colbert said in his opening monologue Thursday.
The “Late Show” host explained that Republicans are still far away from fully repealing the Affordable Care Act. The bill still has to go through the Senate, where it will surely see changes, and therefore go back to the House, before going back to the Senate and then to the Oval Office where President Donald Trump would sign it.
Nevertheless, Republicans were downright ecstatic yesterday.
“Which is why they started chanting: ‘We’re No. 1 . . . third of the way through a very complex process,'” Colbert joked.
5/ Paul Krugman tries to answer why Trump supporters think their man is doing great.....
The 100-day reviews are in, and they’re terrible. The health care faceplants just keep coming; the administration’s tax “plan” offers less detail than most supermarket receipts; Trump has wimped out on his promises to get aggressive on foreign trade. The gap between big boasts and tiny achievements has never been wider.
Yet there have, by my count, been seven thousand news articles — O.K., it’s a rough estimate — about how Trump supporters are standing by their man, are angry at those meanies in the news media, and would gladly vote for him all over again. What’s going on?
6/ Trevor Noah from the Daily Show with six minutes on Trumpcare.....he's more serious than Colbert, but gets in some good zingers....
Trevor Noah was mostly shocked that Republicans passed this bill without even reading it.
“The true effects of the bill could be anything,” he said. “Hell your baby could have to do its own C-section from the inside.”
The people who will be truly harmed by this vote will most likely be red-state voters, as the bill allows states to opt out of the requirement that insurers cover basic health services.
“The Daily Show” host couldn’t believe it.
“Under this bill, if you live in a red state, ambulances might not be a basic benefit anymore,” Noah said. “Now when you get injured, you get picked up by a taxi with a bachelorette party on the roof.”
Noah pointed out that an amendment, the so-called Upton Amendment, was the piece of legislation that enabled this bill to go through. The Upton Amendment provided an additional $8 billion to help cover insurance costs for people with pre-existing conditions. Health care experts say that $8 billion is not close to enough.
“They might as well call it the Kate Upton Amendment because there is barely any coverage,” Noah joked.
7/ Hard to describe this article from Salon, but it's the kind you remember. It's about Republicans lying with sick little smiles on their faces, and the two competing realities we now live in.....
A fascinating read.....
(Credit: Getty/Shutterstock/Salon)
It was 2009 and we had just moved to Franklin, Tennessee, a quaint little town just south of Nashville, which was in the process of becoming a hub of techno and health businesses, and the election had recently ended and Barack Obama had been inaugurated president. We were getting to know the neighborhood and one evening the people who lived right next door invited us over for drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
They were a middle-aged couple who lived in a nice house on a large piece of property, drove nice cars, and enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle in an area surrounded with pastoral Tennessee beauty — farmland planted with soybeans and corn, horse farms with fenced fields of grass replete with riding rings and very expensive polo ponies, homes that ranged from famous 19th-century mansions to modern McMansions built by country music singers and tech millionaires.
8/ The excellent Seth Meyers with Trump's screw-ups of the week.....he's very good.....9 minutes...
On Thursday’s episode of Late Night, Seth Meyers jabbed White House press secretary Sean Spicer over his defense of the White House’s proposed ‘bollard wall’ for the Southern border.
After President Donald Trump failed to secure funding for his border wall, Spicer had the unenviable position of trying to convince the White House press corps that new fences to be built are actually walls — but reporters were having none of it.
Meyers played a testy exchange between Spicer and Charlie Spiering of Breitbart, in which the Spiering grills the press secretary on his “bollard walls”.
“So you’re just basically telling his supporters, the president’s supporters, to be satisfied with this existing tough guy fencing until he’s ready to build the wall?” Spiering concluded.
“I love that reporters are now just fully f*cking with Sean Spicer,” Meyers said. “No it’s a wall! It’s a bollard wall you jerks,” Meyers continued, imitating Spicer.
9/ This is amusing - see if you can guess which gaudy room is Trump's, or Saddam Hussein's, or Gadaffi's.....two minute video....
(Credit: Act.TV)
What is “dictator style”? For Donald Trump, it’s celebrating winning on a private jet while eating a Big Mac. He’s a “man of the people” with bad hair, oversized suits and a notorious trucker hat.
On the other hand, according to Peter York, author of “Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World’s Most Colorful Despots,” “Trump’s design aesthetic is fascinatingly out of line with America’s past and present.”
“The apartments his company actually sells bear no resemblance to the one he lives in,” York said. “But that doesn’t mean his taste comes from nowhere. At one level, it’s aspirational, meant to project the wealth so many citizens can only dream of. But it also has important parallels . . . with something more recent. The best aesthetic descriptor of Trump’s look, I’d argue, is dictator style.”
10/ Very clever - see if you can tell what she did without reading the copy - just look at the picture....
"American Gods".....good TV!
The creators of American Gods have many stories to tell you. One of them goes something like this.
Once upon a time, an author who was not from this country came over to America to live. He found it a strange, wonderful, fascinating place, and eventually wrote a book about the various pasts, presents and futures this land contained. Many people loved it, including a man who'd made an eye-popping, groundbreaking TV show about a serial killer and a screenwriter who penned scripts about the death of a superhero and the rebirth of a replicant hunter. The duo decided to adapt this novel into a series, even though a legion of folks thought it was impossible. Still, they persevered. The author approved. The gods of TV programming, who were also pleased, favored these gentlemen with a Sunday evening timeslot on a premium-cable channel, the highest blessing they could bestow
Todays video - Hasan Minhaj hosted the White House Correspondents dinner, and did a pretty good job.....it's 25 minutes....
T
Even though he didn’t attend Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Donald Trump was still the butt of most jokes delivered by “Daily Show” correspondent Hasan Minhaj, the host of this year’s event.
“I would say it is an honor to be here, but that would be an alternative fact,” Minhaj said at the beginning of his remarks. “No one wanted to do this, so of course it lands in the hands of an immigrant. That’s how it all goes down.”
While Minhaj spent most of his routine mocking Trump — including several jabs at the president’s alleged ties to Russia and his late-night tweets — the comedian also took aim at Bill O’Reilly, Jeff Sessions, Hillary Clinton, CNN and many other media organizations.
Todays video 2 - "The Gunfighter".....I love this one....the Voice is Nick Offernan....
Todays pilot joke
During a commercial airline flight an Air Force Pilotwas seated next to a young mother with a baby in her arms.When the baby began crying during the descent for landing,the mother began nursing the infant as discreetly as possible.The pilot pretended not to notice and, upon disembarking,he gallantly offered his assistance to help with the various baby-related items.When the young mother expressed her gratitude, the pilot responded,"You have a beautiful baby... and he sure was hungry!"Somewhat embarrassed, the mother explained that her pediatrician saidthat the time spent on the breast would help alleviate the pressure in the baby's ears.The Pilot sadly shook his head, and in true pilot fashion exclaimed,"And all these years, I've been chewing gum."
Todays stress test
I am not sure exactly how it works, but this is amazingly
accurate. Read the full description before looking at the picture.
accurate. Read the full description before looking at the picture.
The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case
study on stress levels at St. Mary's Hospital, London .
Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water.
The dolphins are identical.
Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water.
The dolphins are identical.
A closely monitored Scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact
that the dolphins are identical, a person under
stress would find differences in the two dolphins.
The more differences a person finds between the
Dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing.
that the dolphins are identical, a person under
stress would find differences in the two dolphins.
The more differences a person finds between the
Dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing.
Look at the photograph and if you find more than one
or two differences you need to go on vacation....
No need to Reply, I'll be on vacation.
or two differences you need to go on vacation....
No need to Reply, I'll be on vacation.
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