1/ After passing yet another truck with a Trump sticker, I tried to think what a progressive would put on their bumper? And had no answer, which leads into this excellent column from Matt Taibbi....what do Democrats stand for?
The Democrats Need a New Message
After another demoralizing loss to a monstrous candidate, Democrats need a reboot
How low do you have to sink to lose an election in this country? Republicans have been trying to answer that question for years. But they've been unable to find out, because Democrats somehow keep failing to beat them.
There is now a sizable list of election results involving Republican candidates who survived seemingly unsurvivable scandals to win higher office.
The lesson in almost all of these instances seems to be that enormous numbers of voters would rather elect an openly corrupt or mentally deranged Republican than vote for a Democrat. But nobody in the Democratic Party seems terribly worried about this.
2/ The excellent Samantha Bee with her opener last night, subject - Trump in Europe.....five good minutes....
Samantha Bee praised President Donald Trump for finally uniting the country with a single word, "covfefe," on Full Frontal Wednesday. Bee broke down the President's surreal late-night tweet, which stirred the hearts and minds of anyone on Twitter early Wednesday morning.
"For that glorious interlude between midnight and five a.m., we were like passengers on the Titanic who decided to say, 'Fuck it!' and rock out to the band," Bee cracked before offering a suggestion as to what the word might signify. "This is what happens when you've abstained from your phone for nine days: You ejaculate, just like that."
Bee then moved to why the President had been away from Twitter for so long – a nine-day international trip. The Full Frontal Hostdiscussed the administration's jaunt to Saudi Arabia with a disconcertingly apt Mad Max: Fury Road metaphor and then skewered Trump's lazy decision to skip a brief walk with the other G7 leaders to ride alone in a golf cart instead.
3/ Andrew O'Hehir with a dash of cold water in our faces.....reality check folks.....
Wake up, liberals: There will be no 2018 “blue wave,” no Democratic majority and no impeachment
Lessons of Montana: There's no quick fix for Trump or our damaged democracy — and the Democrats still look hopeless
Paul Ryan; Donald Trump; Kevin McCarthy (Credit: AP/Eric Gay/Matt Rourke/Molly Riley/Ron Edmonds/Salon)
We received a message from the future this week, directed to the outraged liberals of the so-called anti-Trump resistance. It was delivered by an unlikely intermediary, Greg Gianforte, the Republican who won a special election on Thursday and will soon take his seat in Congress as Montana’s lone representative. (Here’s a trivia question to distract you from the doom and gloom: Without recourse to Google, how many other states can you name that have only one House seat?)
If you found yourself ashen-faced and dismayed on Friday morning, because you really believed the Montana election would bring a sign of hope and mark the beginning of a return to sanity in American politics, then the message encoded in Gianforte’s victory is for you.
4/ The photo from Trump's visit to the Pope they didn't want you to see....
5/ Paul Krugman with an excellent column.....on Trump's contempt for the voters who put him in office....
For journalists covering domestic policy, this past week poses some hard choices. Should we focus on the Trump budget’s fraudulence — not only does it invoke $2 trillion in phony savings, it counts them twice — or on its cruelty? Or should we talk instead about the Congressional Budget Office assessment of Trumpcare, which would be devastating for older, poorer and sicker Americans?
There is, however, a unifying theme to all these developments. And that theme is contempt — Donald Trump’s contempt for the voters who put him in office.
6/ Thomas Friedman with an interesting analogy of our Trump nightmare.....read this and tell yourself he's wrong....
Trump’s United American Emirate
SEOUL, South Korea — President Trump’s trip to Europe was truly historic.
He left our most important allies there so uncertain about America’s commitment to their security from Russia and to shared values on trade and climate change that German leader Angela Merkel was prompted to tell her countrymen that Europe’s days of relying on America are “over to a certain extent,” and therefore Germany and its European allies “really must take our fate into our own hands.”
No U.S. president before had ever put a crack in the Atlantic alliance on his inaugural tour. Historic.
Merkel is just the first major leader to say out loud what every American ally is now realizing: America is under new management. “Who is America today?” is the first question I’ve been asked on each stop through New Zealand, Australia and South Korea. My answer: We’re not the U.S.A. anymore. We’re the new U.A.E.: the United American Emirate.
7/ French DJ David Guetta is one of the worlds top musicians, and he has made this mysterious video about a she- wolf, called "Falling To Pieces".....visually spectacular, shot in Iceland and quite different.....
The video starts off with a shot of a naked woman, then it moves on to a wounded wolf running from a handful of human hunters. It is shown that the wolf is supernatural, as it is able to make the hunters "explode" on every breakdown of the song. The "explosions" depict the hunters and the landscape as composed by tiny polygons, as if everything were part of a computer simulated reality. At the end of the music video, the canine then transforms back into the naked woman at the end, indicating that she is a werewolf, referring to the song title. Meanwhile, the blood on the snow uncovers beats from the song. This is the second time that neither Guetta nor Sia make an appearance in the video.
8/ Thomas Edsall on how the Democratic Party is caught by it's gradual morphing into becoming the party of the upper middle class......most interesting.....
During his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist, lived up to the grand Democratic tradition of favoring the underdog at the expense of the rich.
He proposed hammering the affluent by raising taxes in the amount of $15.3 trillion over ten years. New revenues would finance about half the cost of a $33.3 trillion boost in social spending
The Sanders tax-and-spending plan throws into sharp relief the problem that the changing demographic makeup of the Democratic coalition creates for party leaders. Trouble brews when a deeply held commitment to the underdog comes into conflict with the self-interested pocketbook and lifestyle concerns of the upper middle class.
9/ This afternoon Trump took America out of the Paris Accord on climate change, and for the most spiteful reason you can imagine......if liberals want to stay in, then Trump's right decision has to be the opposite.....that's where we are now folks.
If "the base" hates it, it'll be done.
The Trump administration’s reportedly forthcoming decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement will not end the global effort to limit the effects of climate change. In the immediate time frame — say, Trump’s first term — it will have little effect, and may even spur a backlash as the rest of the world redoubles its commitment to action (China and the European Union have already taken steps to do so). It will, however, slow and impair international diplomacy. The next American government that tries to negotiate on climate change will be handicapped by the suspicion that it won’t abide by its commitments, undercutting American leadership and making it more difficult to secure cooperation from other countries.
The question is, what purpose does this serve? What economic or philosophical policy goal is advanced? The answer is that it satisfies the same elemental partisan tribalism that has allowed Trump to hold together his party.
10/ Not much comedy this week [Memorial Day Week], so here is a classic from SNL 2008 - Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton addressing the nation.....six wonderful and very funny minutes....
11/ A local story about Mount Dora's Scott's Farms and how they are thinking of closing. A very good article from the Tampa Bay Times on the pressure that family farming is under and how tough it is to keep afloat. This article is of special interest to us because this is our only source of wonderful Zellwood corn....
Of course it also doesn't help that Publix doesn't support local farms - Publix is Big Ag, and forget getting anything local from Publix, let alone farm to table.Their local store managers have no discretion to buy local, which is why you can't get Zellwood corn in Mount Dora, three miles away.....and anything else local like blueberries. Mount Dora is surrounded by blueberry farmers and even an organic farm [King Grove], but Publix could care less....
So if you want to support your local farmers buy your produce at Hometown Market [near Big Lots}, the Health Basket has local and organics and every Sunday the Mount Dora Farmers Market downtown has locally grown veggies and fruit, and also [local] meats, chicken and excellent fresh fish....
![Read this morning why Florida's most prized sweet corn is nearly extinct. [LOREN ELLIOTT | Times]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhR4moCfnuUkghJ7PZbpeik9UuHpHd4M56Gp5yD3bbFuIAvp-eW0ujMOCCrbPhQMe7Gnx9O_z6odvbWHMZdBVIL8WHNtSCzOm1Y8JZhUmTJnStKQRZFAgm7i2bCN_EJpRjRgJ1GuPJaChw8-GJvCatWvz5hL6RgI-jrIa33SdowBjkXUHlw8WsalpByH-evWiDvxHY8p0wtIpw=s0-d-e1-ft)
Hank Scott steps out of his pickup between the long rows and snaps off an ear that grows about bellybutton-high on the forehead-high stalks. Shucking it with a satisfying rip and not being too fussy about the rogue strands of silk, he bites into the bicolored ear, the back of his hand a napkin. Raw, no butter, nothing — it's just about perfect, its juice as sticky as peach dribbles. Scott, 61, wears a close-cropped gray beard and his reading glasses dangling from stretchy blue Croakies. His shirt is embroidered with the Long & Scott Farms logo, "Est. 1963." ¶ He and his family are the keepers and protectors of one of Florida's only remaining name brand foods. Folks know Plant City strawberries, they know Ruskin tomatoes and Indian River grapefruit. And they know Zellwood corn. Scott's Zellwood Triple-Sweet Gourmet Corn is proudly touted on menus in some of the state's best restaurants. It's a super-sweet, super-tender, super-premium corn that's in high season right now. ¶ The farm has beaten all odds, avoiding a massive government shutdown, even venturing into the trendy world of kale. ¶ But as consumers demand gourmet, local products more than ever, they also want them fast and cheap. And after all it has been through, Florida's most prized corn may be going extinct
Todays video - one of the funniest [and naughtiest] sketches ever - Key and Peele "Substitute Teacher"....
Todays Swiss joke
Have you ever wondered where and how yodeling began?
Many years ago a man was traveling through the mountains of
Switzerland .
Many years ago a man was traveling through the mountains of
Switzerland .
Nightfall was rapidly approaching and he had nowhere to sleep. He went
Up to a farmhouse and asked the farmer if he could spend the night.?
The farmer told him that he could sleep in the barn.
As the story goes, the farmer's daughter asked her father, "Who is
That man going into the barn?"
"That fellow traveling through," said the farmer. "needs a place to
Stay for the night, so, I told him he could sleep in the barn."
The daughter said, "Perhaps he is hungry." So she prepared him a plate
Of food for him and then took it out to the barn.
About an hour later, the daughter returned. Her clothing disheveled
And straw in her hair. Straight up to bed she went.
And straw in her hair. Straight up to bed she went.
The farmer's wife was very observant. She then suggested that perhaps
The man was thirsty.
So she fetched a bottle of wine, took it out to the
Barn,!
Barn,!
And she too did not return for an hour.
Her clothing was askew,
Her blouse buttoned incorrectly.
Her blouse buttoned incorrectly.
She also headed straight to bed.
The next morning at sunrise the man in the barn got up and continued
On his journey, waving to the farmer as he left.
When the daughter awoke and learned that the visitor was gone, she
Broke into tears.
Broke into tears.
"How could he leave without even saying goodbye," she
Cried. "We made such passionate love last night!"
Cried. "We made such passionate love last night!"
"What?" shouted the father as he angrily ran out of the house looking
For the man, who by now was halfway up the mountain.
The farmer screamed up at him, "I'm going to get you! You had sex with
My daughter!"
My daughter!"
The man looked back down from the mountainside, cupped his hand next
To his mouth, and yelled out.....
"LAIDTHEOLADEETOO"
Todays pilot jokes
Actual exchanges between pilots and control towers
Tower: "TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees."
TWA 2341: "Center, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"
Tower: "Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"
From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: "I'm f...ing bored!"
Ground Traffic Control: "Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"
Unknown aircraft: "I said I was f...ing bored, not f...ing stupid!"
O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."
United 329: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this...I've got the little Fokker in sight."
A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long rollout after touching down.
San Jose Tower noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able.
If you are not able, take the Guadelupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."
There's a story about the military pilot calling for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running "a bit peaked".
Air Traffic Control told the fighter jock that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down.
"Ah," the fighter pilot remarked, "The dreaded seven-engine approach."
Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency 124.7"
Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure. By the way, after we lifted off we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway."
Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702, contact Departure on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from Eastern 702?"
BR Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger; and yes, we copied Eastern... we've already notified our caterers."
One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee.
Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?"
The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing llike yours and I'll have enough parts for another one."
While taxiing at London's Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727.
An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air 2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!"
Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"
"Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded.
Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high.
Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking: "Wasn't I married to you once?"
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