1/ Two of the major problems which are or will affect our society's survival are Climate Change, and economic inequality which is producing political dysfunction and instability. But there is a third threat which no one is talking about - Artificial Intelligence and the increasing use of robots. This will affect almost every job in our economy and will eventually lead to massive unemployment and unrest.....
Don't believe it? Read this fascinating article from Mother Jones.....and start planning....
I want to tell you straight off what this story is about: Sometime in the next 40 years, robots are going to take your job.
I don’t care what your job is. If you dig ditches, a robot will dig them better. If you’re a magazine writer, a robot will write your articles better. If you’re a doctor, IBM’s Watson will no longer “assist” you in finding the right diagnosis from its database of millions of case studies and journal articles. It will just be a better doctor than you.
And CEOs? Sorry. Robots will run companies better than you do. Artistic types? Robots will paint and write and sculpt better than you. Think you have social skills that no robot can match? Yes, they can. Within 20 years, maybe half of you will be out of jobs. A couple of decades after that, most of the rest of you will be out of jobs.
2/ I totally agree with Bill Maher on this one, because even though he did something stupid Al Franken is NOT in the same category as Roy Moore, Harvey etc etc. Before you get offended, watch the clip....
Two good minutes from his opening monologue....
During his monologue on Friday night, Bill Maher weighed in on the controversy surrounding his friend Al Franken.
“Very disturbing,” he began. “I was so shaken, I called Bill Cosby to see if he had anything that could calm me down.”
The Real Time host recapped Franken’s actions, which including taking a picture of himself groping Leann Tweeden while she was sleeping and forcibly kissing her on the mouth for a skit during their 2006 USO trip to Afghanistan.
“Al’s a friend, but Al- I gotta to tell you,” he addressed the Democratic senator, “If you write a comedy sketch where you, Al Franken, kiss a model and her next line of dialogue isn’t ‘Get off of me, creepy!’ it’s not comedy; it’s science fiction.”
3/ And a story explaining the issues with the Al Franken scandal.....
Although he doesn't emphasize it note the number of appearances Tweeden has made on Hannity....
Franken a predator? Tweeden an opportunist? Who pulled better hit job?
hose aren’t the only questions raised by the surprise assault accusation by radio performer Leeann Tweeden against comedian-turned-US Senator Al Franken, but they might be enough to offend everyone. And everyone probably should be offended by one or another aspect of this story – a dicey opinion to have so early in a story, but let’s look closely at what we know now (late on November 16).
Start with the accusations: There are two, and they are quite different in important respects. The two alleged incidents occurred during a two-week USO tour to Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan in December 2006. The accusations of 2017 first appeared on a KABC website. She works for KABC, which ran the story under Leeann Tweeden’s byline and with the fundamentally problematical headline:
Senator Al Franken Kissed and Groped Me Without My Consent, And There’s Nothing Funny About It
4/ The wonderful Frank Rich on the weeks news.....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: Roy Moore’s recalcitrance, Jeff Sessions’s evolving story on Russia meetings, and Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter correspondence with WikiLeaks.
As more and more women come forward with allegations of Roy Moore’s sexual pursuit of teenagers, the GOP Senate candidate refuses to concede the race, even after having lost the support of nearly every Republican currently serving in the Senate. At this point, what is the GOP’s best course of action?
They do purport to believe in prayer (as does Roy “Mr. Ten Commandments” Moore, of course), so that’s one option. Actually, that may be the only option. By getting into bed with a sexual predator — as Mitch McConnell, his colleagues, and the GOP base all did with Donald Trump — the Republicans asked for the catastrophe that is now befalling them.
5/ Bill Maher's final "New Rules" of the year was "A Christmas Carol" for Trump.....very funny, about five minutes....
Bill Maher got into the holiday spirit early on Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time.”
To mark his last show until January, the comedian took inspiration from Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol to imagine how it could all have turned out so differently for President Donald Trump.
“Since Donald Trump is truly the Ebenezer Scrooge of our time ― angry, rich, and hard to look at ― maybe tonight I could play the part of the ghost and show Trump an alternative reality of what his life could have been if he weren’t such a shit-head,” joked Maher.
He then proceeded to play out old interviews in which Trump said he didn’t want to make “tremendous amounts of money,” that he wanted to enjoy his life, that he believed in luck and actually chose love over work.
After speculating that Trump had changed due to “spending the last 20 years watching Fox News,” Maher concluded by asking: “Is it too late to bring back the old Trump?”
6/ Of all of the issues with conservatives, climate change denial in the face of overwhelming evidence is the most perplexing......which is why this article is so fascinating. Forget trying to persuade conservatives that global warming is real - we need to work on the right wing elites who are telling them what to think.....
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When it comes to climate change, US conservatives inhabit a unique position, as part of the only major political party in the democratic world to reject the legitimacy of climate science and any domestic policy or international agreement meant to address it. Instead, the GOP is working actively to increase production and consumption of fossil fuels and to slow the transition to renewable energy.
How can conservatives be moved on climate change?
7/ John Oliver closed his season with an excellent summary of Trump and his techniques he uses to rule the media.....and divide us all. You may have seen this before, but Oliver has a gift for reporting as well as comedy......well worth 23 minutes, one of his best...
One year after Election Day, the season finale of Last Week Tonight's John Oliver outlined the three main manipulation tactics President Trump uses when engaging with the public and the press: delegitimizing media, "whataboutism" and trolling. The techniques, Oliver says, are "depressively effective." Many of these persuasive tools were even employed in Soviet-era propaganda. Even more depressingly, the negative impact is already spreading beyond Trump's presidency.
8/ Andrew Sullivan with two [almost] scholarly essays on Christianity and the Clintons, and civilization.......excellent writing....
I have to say I was deeply moved by the New York Times op-ed yesterday by an evangelical law professor from Alabama. The piece, by the wonderfully named William S. Brewbaker III, moved me because it was the first genuinely Christian thing I’ve heard an evangelical say about the Roy Moore scandal. It did more than renounce the tribalism that has led so many alleged Christians to back Moore; it presented Christianity, properly understood, as the core alternative to tribalism, as one way out of tribalism’s dead end. Brewbaker’s critical and deeply evangelical point:
To begin with, sin is a problem from which no one is exempt.
9/ Louie Gomhert, a Congressman from BFE, showed an interesting looking chart at the Russia hearings, so Stephen Colbert got it and shows us the intricacies of the Uranium One conspiracy.....an amusing five minutes....
There is also a Hannity chart.....
On Friday’s show, Colbert also ridiculed Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) for holding up a similar chart during a congressional hearing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Colbert imagined a new ending to that graphic, however.
Check out the Hannity spoof in the clip above, and the Gohmert parody
10/ An interesting essay by Benjamin Studebaker, which argues there will be a Canadian Trump soon......boy I hope he's wrong....
For a couple of years now I’ve had a theory, one I haven’t told you all about. It goes something like this–Canada is just like us, but 5-10 years ago. Here’s how it works.
Think about the history of Canadian Prime Ministers. Right now Canada has Justin Trudeau. He’s good-looking, he’s beloved internationally, but policy-wise he’s less progressive than you might think. He ran on a campaign of bringing change, but he’s not delivering on much of it. Canada is still knee-deep in tar sands oil and Trudeau hasn’t gotten serious yet about electoral reform. He’s passed a stimulus package, but it’s rather modest.
Who does that sound like? Barack Obama.
11/ SNL with a 3 minute skit - the HR lady on sexual harassment.....Cecily Strong is wonderful.....
Cecily Strong has created a host of memorable characters since becoming a cast member in 2012. But often times, those characters are buried in a host of voices and affectations that hide her as a performer. That's not to say these characters are inherently bad: In fact, many are excellent. But there's something about her performance here as Claire that suggests there's a lot to be gained from Strong doing less and achieving far more.
Yes, her HR rep Claire is a harried mess that drinks Purell in order to get through the day. But there's something instantly relatable, vulnerable, exhausted, and outraged that puts a human face to a widespread crisis on national television for all to see. It's wrong to put too huge a burden on one performance to represent all women's outrage, but it's fair to say that Strong knocked this performance out of the park. Noting at the end that this isn't a sketch inspired by recent events but in fact reflecting an ongoing issue that's "actual reality for half the population," both Strong and SNL delivered a signature piece at a tenuous time.
12/ Bill McKibben reviews a book by Jeff Goodall on how flooding is going to affect us sooner than we think.....but we know that, right?
The shoreline in Miami, a low-lying city threatened by rising sea levels. (Joseph Michael Lopez/For The Washington Post)
Some of humanity’s most primordial stories involve flooding: The tales of Noah, and before that Gilgamesh, tell what happens when the water starts to rise and doesn’t stop. But for the 10,000 years of human civilization, we’ve been blessed with a relatively stable climate, and hence flooding has been an exceptional terror. As that blessing comes to an end with our reckless heating of the planet, the exceptional is becoming all too normal, as residents of Houston and South Florida and Puerto Rico found out already this fall.
Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria provide a dramatic backdrop for the story Jeff Goodell tells in “The Water Will Come”: If there was ever a moment when Americans might focus on drainage, this is it. But this fine volume (which expands on his reporting in Rolling Stone) concentrates on the slower and more relentless toll that water will take on our cities and our psyches in the years to come.
13/ Found this interesting video in the Times - "Internetting with Amanda Hess"......how the web lets crazies act out their fantasies.....four minutes and includes lizard people....
14/ The next time you go to the doctor for anything if they take your blood pressure they might tell you it's too high, and prescribe some drugs for you. Don't fall for it - they just arbitrarily changed the guidelines to make you "sick" and needing medication.
Whenever you interact with the medical system, protect yourself - verify whatever your Doctor tells you in your eight minute appointment....
The nation’s leading heart experts on Monday issued new guidelines for high blood pressure that mean tens of millions more Americans will meet the criteria for the condition, and will need to change their lifestyles or take medicines to treat it.
Under the guidelines, formulated by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, the number of men under age 45 with a diagnosis of high blood pressure will triple, and the prevalence among women under age 45 will double.
“Those numbers are scary,” said Dr. Robert M. Carey, professor of medicine at the University of Virginia and co-chair of the committee that wrote the new guidelines.
15/ One recurring SNL piece is "Whiskers are We", featuring two cat ladies.....silly, but you can tell they are having a good time doing it....with real cats....five minutes....
On the opposite side of the spectrum from Strong's tour de force was the latest exercise in utter silliness, in which bad puns and cat chaos reigned supreme. Without doing heavy research, I'd wager this is at least the fifth version of this sketch. Originally a two-hander between Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig, this has evolved into a fun showcase in the ten-to-one slot for various female hosts to share the stage with a consummate SNL pro.
A lot of this sketch's success had to do with it going off the rails almost instantly due to an attempted feline insurrection: Haddish's "I got the pussy!" reaction, followed by her lifting the cats to the screen so the Standards and Practices department would not fine her, set the tone for everything that followed. By the time that bald cat Toby tried to attack both actresses after a particularly funny burn, those on- and offstage surrendered to the cosmic flow of things. Given that most of the post-"Weekend Update" material didn't fare very well, it was great to have this to end the episode on a high.
16/ The best TV of 2017, from New York Magazine.....
This list has been updated to include October releases.
In the Peak TV era, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of television available. Even when you winnow the options down to the best of the best, as we did below, the shows don’t fit into any one category.
Todays video - "Carpool Karaoke" with James Corden and Pink......amusing, and Pink seems to be a genuine person, and funny too.....
Todays beer jokes
Tim- 'I think beer must be good. My dad says the more beer he drinks
the prettier my mom gets.'
Melanie - 'Beer makes my dad sleepy and we get to watch what we want
on television when he is asleep, so beer is nice.
Grady - 'My Mom gets funny when she drinks it and takes her top off
at parties.'
Lilly - 'My Dad loves beer. The more he drinks, the better he dances.
One time he danced right into the pool.'
Mary - 'I think beer tastes bitter and I don't like it. Mom likes it,
but she gets tired and leans on guys and they have to help her to the
bedroom for a quick nap. When they come back, she is all perky and
happy, and the guys are all tired out.
Brittney - I don't like beer, but mom says it helps you get the guys
you want, so I'll have to learn to like it.
Jack - 'My Mom drinks beer and she says silly things and picks on my
father. Whenever she drinks beer she yells at Dad and tells him to go
bury his bone down the street again, but that doesn't make any
sense.'
Fergie - My mom never drinks beer when dad is home, but he sometimes
does.
Then she yells at him when it makes him want to smooch. Mom only
drinks beer when dad is away. When it makes her want to smooch, she
will do it with everybody, even the Pizza guy, and he is weird.
Brad - Beer tastes disgusting. My brother told me it makes you think
the girls are pretty. With his girlfriend I would need an awful lot of beer
Todays Minnesota joke
Sven, a doctor in Duluth, Minnesota wanted to get off work and go hunting, so he approached his assistant."Ole, I am goin' huntin' tomorrow and don't vunt to close da clinic. I vunt you to take care of the clinic and take care of all my patients."
"Ja, I can do that fer shore, sir!" answers Ole.
The doctor goes hunting and returns the following day and asks: "So, Ole, how vuss yur day?"
Ole told him that he took care of three patients. "The first vun had da headache so I giff him TYLENOL."
"Bravo, mate, and the second vun?" asks the Dr. Sven."The second vun had stomach burning and I gave him MAALOX, sir," says Ole.
"Bravo, bravo! You're good at this and vut about da third vun?" asks the Doctor.
"Sir, I vus yust sitting here and suddenly, the door opens and a lady enters. Like a flame, she undresses herself, taking off everything including her panties and lies down on the table and shouts: ‘HELP ME - I haven't seen a man in over two years!!’"
"Tunderin' Lard Jeezus, Ole, vut did you do?" asks the doctor."I put drops in her eyes!!"
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