1/ Oh my....Andrew Sullivan in New York Magazine with an overview of where we are now as a country under Trump.....look at his chilling remarks about "the base"....
Folks this is a must read.....
The past week was another watershed, it seems to me, in the rising power of Donald Trump. Flake is quitting; Corker is retiring; McCain is mortal. Sasse, Murkowski, Collins, and Paul remain, but the odds are mounting against them. A new slew of Bannonite candidates is emerging from under various rocks and crannies to take their places. The Trump propaganda machine was given a chance to turn the Russia story into a Clinton scandal - lowering even further the possibility of impeachment - and gleefully took it. The FBI is the next target for a barrage of hostile propaganda, since it might expose the Supreme Leader. Mueller is being daily savaged in the right wing press. Outside Washington, Trump’s targets are faltering. The NFL is reeling; a Gold Star widow is attacked; Obamacare is at risk of being sabotaged to death; the EPA is castrated.
This time last year, I warned about an abyss. This is what it looks like.
2/ Stephen Colbert with some Halloween merchandise for the Trumpies.....one minute....
Apparently, President Donald Trump’s Halloween-themed “Make America Great Again” hat wasn’t scary enough.
On Tuesday, “The Late Show” unveiled a spoof line of spooky Trump merchandise. The most terrifying product? Possibly “The Shining” twins costume, as modeled by Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
3/ The wonderful Frank Rich on the news of the week....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today: Jeff Flake’s revolt, what the latest Bill O’Reilly revelations mean for Fox News, and the ineffectiveness of John Kelly.
With yesterday’s speech on the Senate floor, Jeff Flake becomes the third Establishment conservative, after Bob Corker and John McCain, to begin attacking the direction of the GOP in general terms — and just as the party puts its fundraising muscle behind Alabama’s Roy Moore. Will this trio’s rebellion have any impact?Flake’s powerful indictment of Trump has been viewed by many as a “Have you no sense of decency?” tipping point in fond memory of that moment when the lawyer Joseph Welch’s challenge to Joe McCarthy in a Senate hearing room sped McCarthy’s demise. Yesterday was the day when you could see “the ice beginning to crack,” in the widely repeated words of Peter Wehner, a longtime adviser to Republican presidents who’s a leading Never Trump-er.
4/ Jordan Klepper with his faux conservative persona, and he ends up being quite amusing. Here he looks at the NRA's new ad campaign....
Armed with biting satire, Jordan Klepper of Comedy Central’s “The Opposition” took aim at the National Rifle Association’s new video on Wednesday.
The clip, posted on Facebook, featured NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch of TheBlaze “spitting spicy word fire” as usual, Klepper noted. He mock-praised her “thoughtful approach,” citing this bit of hyperbole from Loesch: “We are witnesses to the most ruthless attack on a president and the people who voted for him .. in American history.”
“True,” Klepper said, “four presidents have been assassinated, but that’s nothing. Imagine if instead of shooting Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth had written a think piece for The New Yorker calling him impulsive. America may never have healed.”
But it’s all about the guns, right? Well, Klepper was still looking for a discussion about “guns” in the video, but he figured out why he can’t find it. “The NRA knows you don’t bring a gunfight to a culture war,” he said.
5/ Puerto Rico is screwed.....look who they gave the contract to for rebuilding the power grid......The story also explains why when we have a hurricane power trucks descend on our state like locusts...
Hmmmm.....I wonder if there was corruption involved....the semi-good news is that FEMA is looking into the contract, but don't hold your breath.
For the sprawling effort to restore Puerto Rico’s crippled electrical grid, the territory’s state-owned utility has turned to a two-year-old company from Montana that had just two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall.
The company, Whitefish Energy, said last week that it had signed a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to repair and reconstruct large portions of the island’s electrical infrastructure. The contract is the biggest yet issued in the troubled relief effort.
Whitefish said Monday that it has 280 workers in the territory, using linemen from across the country, most of them as subcontractors, and that the number grows on average from 10 to 20 people a day. It said it was close to completing infrastructure work that will energize some of the key industrial facilities that are critical to restarting the local economy.
The power authority, also known as PREPA, opted to hire Whitefish rather than activate the “mutual aid” arrangements it has with other utilities. For many years, such agreements have helped U.S. utilities — including those in Florida and Texas recently — to recover quickly after natural disasters.
6/ A fascinating Floriduh story about the history and future of Cape Coral, the fastest growing city in America......really, really interesting.....
The Boomtown That Shouldn’t Exist
Cape Coral, Florida, was built on total lies. One big storm could wipe it off the map. Oh, and it’s also the fastest-growing city in the United States.
CAPE CORAL, Florida — The ads promised paradise, “Legendary Lazy Living” in a “Waterfront Wonderland.” The brochures sold the Florida dream, “an enchanted City-in-the-Making (average temperature: 71.2 degrees)” without winter, worries or state income taxes. Cape Coral was America’s land of tomorrow, just $20 down and $20 a month for a quarter-acre slice of heaven: “Breathtaking, isn’t it? How could it be otherwise when Nature was so lavishly generous to begin with?”
The Raso family moved from Pittsburgh to Cape Coral on September 14, 1960, lured by that sunny vision of affordable utopia. At the time, the vision was just about all there was. The City-in-the-Making was still mostly uninhabitable swampland, with just a few dozen homes along a few mosquito-swarmed dirt roads.
7/ Stephen Colbert's two minute opener where he has fun with the five Presidents fund raiser for Puerto Rico....a couple of LOL moments and very funny....
Stephen Colbert on Monday tried to guess what former President George W. Bush whispered to former President Obama to make him laugh during a benefit concert over the weekend.
A video surfaced late Saturday night of Bush leaning over to whisper something to Obama while former President Clinton was speaking during a benefit concert to raise funds for disaster relief. In the video, Obama is seen chuckling at Bush's comment.
8/ Seth Meyers with "A Closer Look".....on Trump and an interview he had on Fox News and since you [I'm guessing] never watch this channel look at the softball questions........
One of his better ones, about 11 minutes........
Seth Meyers looked grossed out watching Fox Business host Lou Dobbs blatantly fawn over President Donald Trump during their interview earlier this week.
“To be fair, you might also have an inflated ego if there was a whole TV channel dedicated to showering you with praise,” Meyers said Thursday night of Trump’s relationship with Fox News.
After playing clips of Dobbs repeatedly complimenting Trump during the interview, Meyers cringed.
“Ugh! Usually when you see an old dude slobber that much, he has a nurse with him,” Meyers said on “Late Night.”
9/ This is a music video from St. Vincent......yes I know, who the hell is he or she.....all we know is she is from New York and is of a certain age...
Note - some salty language in this video....
Ten years after she released her debut album as St. Vincent, Annie Clark makes her decisive move into mainstream pop with “Masseduction.” She does it in the ways St. Vincent has always worked: accomplished, self-conscious, precise, unblinking, completel
“Masseduction” teams St. Vincent with a hitmaking producer and songwriter, Jack Antonoff (Lorde, Taylor Swift, Fun.). Ms. Clark’s voice has always been inviting, a silky mezzo-soprano that can whisper breathy confidences, turn sweetly deadpan or open outward to portray longing and ache, and she uses it as strategically as an actress would, inhabiting characters who may or may not be like her.
10/ The Huffpost TV critic with the best shows on TV right now......you may or may not agree with him about all of his picks, but it might help you not to watch garbage.....
You’ve got free time to kill, and you want to spend these rare moments with a TV show, but you’ve got a ton of options on a handful of streaming platforms. In an era when keeping up with contemporary TV is beginning to feel more and more like homework, it’s about time there was a cheat sheet.
HuffPost’s Streamline is a go-to source for what to watch online right now. It includes recommendations for scripted TV shows, both live-action and animated, chosen by writers who watch countless series and have an eye on what other critics are ecstatic about this minute.
The weekly list values newness to promote shows that might not be on your radar yet. On the navigation bar above, you can choose specific recommendations for series streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. The main list below also includes shows that you can stream online with a cable package (such as programs on HBO, Showtime and FX Networks).
The idea: Come to Streamline before you accidentally waste your time with a bad show. Wait a minute to save a minute.
11/ The new movie from Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the best film Directors working [There Will Be Blood, Magnolia], stars Daniel Day-Lewis and called "Phantom Thread".....here's the trailer - out Christmas....
The Oscar race isn’t over until the last movie screens, and this year one of the final contenders to be unveiled will be “Phantom Thread.” The drama marks the hugely anticipated reunion between Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis, who last worked together a decade ago on “There Will Be Blood.” The Upton Sinclair-inspired drama earned eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and gave Day-Lewis his second trophy for Best Actor (he’d make history and win a third for “Lincoln” five years later), so anyone would be foolish to underestimate just how big “Phantom Thread” will be this awards season.
Focus Features has been keeping a majority of the details surrounding the movie under lock and key, although the official trailer was finally released on October 23, teasing a gorgeously shot drama about the romantic obsessions of a self-destructive artist.
Todays aging jokes
Perks of reaching 50 or being over 60 and
heading towards 70!
01. Kidnappers are not very interested in
you.
02. In a hostage situation you are likely to
be released first.
03. No one expects you to run -- anywhere.
04. People call at 9 PM and ask, "Did I wake
you?"
05. People no longer view you as a
hypochondriac.
06. There is nothing left to learn the hard
way.
07. Things you buy now won't wear out.
08. You can eat supper at 5 PM.
09. You can live without sex but not your
glasses.
10. You get into heated arguments about
pension plans.
11. You no longer think of speed limits as
a challenge.
12. You quit trying to hold your stomach
in no matter who walks into the room.
13. You sing along with elevator music.
14. Your eyes won't get much worse.
15. Your investment in health insurance
is finally beginning to pay off.
16. Your joints are more accurate
meteorologists than the national weather
service.
17.Your secrets are safe with your friends
because they can't remember them either.
18. Your supply of brain cells is finally
down to manageable size!!!!
Todays bear joke
A Catholic Priest, a Baptist Preacher and a Rabbi all served as Chaplains to the students of Northern Michigan University at Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop.
One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard, a real challenge would be to preach to a bear.
One thing led to another, and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it to their religion.
Seven days later, they all came together to discuss their experiences.
Father Flannery, who had his arm in a sling, was on crutches, and had various bandages on his body and limbs, went first.
'Well,' he said, 'I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him, I began to read to him from the Catechism.
Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle as a lamb. The Bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation.'
Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, had one arm and both legs in casts, and had an IV drip.
In his best fire-and-brimstone oratory, he exclaimed, 'WELL, brothers, you KNOW that we Baptists don't sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me.
So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek. So I quickly DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus. Hallelujah!
The Priest and the Reverend both looked down at the Rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction with IVs and monitors running in and out of him. He was in really bad shape.
The Rabbi looked up and said: "Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start."
