1/ One of our alert readers sent us this disturbing blog post, the premise of which is that American society is not just at risk of collapse, we are already collapsing because of our pathological capitalism.....
Hold on, you say- "it's not that bad".....but it is. Think of "the base".
Read this, it's excellent....
You might say, having read some of my recent essays, “Umair! Don’t worry! Everything will be fine! It’s not that bad!” I would look at you politely, and then say gently, “To tell you the truth, I don’t think we’re taking collapse nearly seriously enough.”
Why? When we take a hard look at US collapse, we see a number of social pathologies on the rise. Not just any kind. Not even troubling, worrying, and dangerous ones. But strange and bizarre ones. Unique ones. Singular and gruesomely weird ones I’ve never really seen before, and outside of a dystopia written by Dickens and Orwell, nor have you, and neither has history.
2/ SNL's hilarious sketch about Aziz Ansari.....a painfully funny four minutes...
The #MeToo movement has sparked quite the discussion in this country, but none of the allegations made against these high-profile figures have been as divisive as the ones that were made against Aziz Ansari.
Saturday Night Live tackled the Aziz Ansari story head-on in a sketch that took place during a couple’s night out.
The dinner was running smoothly… until someone brought him up.
“Did any of you read that op-ed piece about-” Heidi Gardner began.
“Honey, no,” her husband Beck Bennett interrupted.
“What article are you talking about?” Aidy Bryant asked across the table.
“The one about… Aziz Ansari?” Gardner responded.
3/ Ever heard of Qatar? Are you aware this rich little kingdom is in a major dispute with it's neighbors?
A very enlightening look at what is happening in the Middle East from the Times......this is journalism folks....
DOHA, Qatar — For the emir of Qatar, there has been little that money can’t buy.
As a teenager he dreamed of becoming the Boris Becker of the Arab world, so his parents flew the German tennis star to Qatar to give their son lessons. A lifelong sports fanatic, he later bought a French soccer team, Paris Saint-Germain, which last summer paid $263 million for a Brazilian striker — the highest transfer fee in the history of the game.
He helped bring the 2022 World Cup to Qatar at an estimated cost of $200 billion, a major coup for a country that had never qualified for the tournament.
Now at age 37, the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has run into a problem that money alone cannot solve.
Since June, tiny Qatar has been the target of a punishing air and sea boycottled by its largest neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Overnight, airplanes and cargo ships bound for Qatar were forced to change course, diplomatic ties were severed and Qatar’s only land border, a 40-mile stretch of desert with Saudi Arabia, slammed shut.
Not even animals were spared. Around 12,000 Qatari camels, peacefully grazing on Saudi land, were expelled, causing a stampede at the border.
4/ Seth Meyers with a comedic reporting look at the case for obstruction of justice against Trump.....a very good [and funny] 11 minutes....
Seth Meyers took an in-depth look into the growing case that President Donald Trump obstructed justice on Monday’s broadcast of “Late Night.”
And there was one particular detail that Meyers couldn’t quite believe.
Namely, that in May 2017, Trump reportedly mocked the wife of then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe for her failure to win a Virginia state Senate seat two years previously.
Per NBC News, Trump suggested McCabe “ask his wife how it feels to be a loser” during a telephone call, which he made the day after firing James Comey as director of the bureau.
“You told him to ask his wife what it’s like to be a loser?” asked Meyers. “You should ask your wife what it’s like to be married to one!
5/ You are obviously going to watch the Super Bowl this weekend, but read this first.....enjoy the clever new ads, but the game will be a metaphor for Trump's America....
We purveyors of commentary tend to find multitudes in the teeniest speck and mirrors of the zeitgeist wherever we turn. I grant you that. But grant me this: America really is about to get the pathetic Super Bowl that it deserves.
I don’t think that I can even food-bribe myself into watching. There aren’t enough Buffalo wings in the world. On account of a wearyingly familiar come-from-behind victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, the New England Patriots will be playing, and that’s about as surprising as sesame seeds on a bun.
6/ Bill Maher with a very good "New Rules".....why does Trump single out black people? A decent five minutes....
Bill Maher has dissected President Donald Trump’s oft-repeated defense that he’s “the least racist person anyone has ever met.”
On Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time,” the comedian said that if Trump kept on insisting it was true then he had to explain “why the single most consistent thing in his whole life is he loves to pick fights with black people.”
“Of all his myriad insanities, if I had to pick one line for his tombstone it would be, ‘Here Lies Donald Trump: Picked Fights With Black People,’” quipped Maher.
7/ This is scary - only 39% of Americans have enough funds to cover a $1000 emergency......the majority [61%] have to borrow from friends and family or take out one of those ruinous loans....
James DeVolid, 54, put in so many hours between his two jobs at Tyson Foods and Walmart that his wife, Susan, often joked that he worked “eight days a week.”
But after DeVolid developed nerve damage, he had to quit last summer the janitorial position he’d held for 20 years at a Tyson Food distribution center in Pottsville, Arkansas. His job required cleaning freezers, and the cold temperatures exacerbated his ailment.
DeVolid kept his other job at Walmart, where he earns $10 an hour moving carts 32 hours a week. But the change cut his annual income from $40,000 to $20,000, and he had to give up the health insurance benefits provided at Tyson’s. He figured it would only take a few weeks for his coverage to kick in at Walmart.
But before it did, the husband and father of two suffered a severe heart attack, and had to undergo triple bypass surgery.
8/ Bill Maher's opener last week......a very funny six minutes.....
9/ An interesting story from the Times on the world's premier seller of private jets, based in London. It's a glimpse into the world of oligarchs from a purveyor of their toys, and fascinating....
And now our current president has brought the spirit of the private plane — the great symbol of extreme excess in isolated and theoretically productive comfort — to American public life. As a candidate, he held rallies in hangars so that his supporters might witness the grandiosity of his roaring descent from the sky. Once in office, Trump appointed the most disproportionately enplaned administration in history: According to Forbes, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has a Dassault Falcon; Linda McMahon, the Small Business Administration administrator, has a Bombardier Global; Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her family maintain a fleet of 12 private jets, including a Boeing and six Gulfstreams, as well as four helicopters; Gary Cohn, the chairman of the National Economic Council, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross each retain private-jet shares in a fractional-ownership arrangement.
10/ Will Ferrell does "W" again in an amusing SNL cold open.....six minutes....
Will Ferrell returned to SNL this weekend and kicked off the show by reprising his role as George W. Bush.
“Bush” began by acknowledging that he wasn’t really speaking from the real Oval Office but from a set he had built in his basement of his home in Texas where he sometimes pretends he’s still president.
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the news, but according to a new poll, my approval rating is at an all-time high,” Bush said. “That’s right. ‘Donny Q. Trump’ came in and suddenly I’m looking pretty sweet by comparison. At this rate, I might even end up on Mt. Rushmore next to Washington, Lincoln, and I want to say Kensington? I don’t know. But the point is that I’m suddenly popular AF.”
11/ An SNL "Weekend Update" segment of jokes including Michael Che on Super Bowl fans, and three minutes of Heidi Gardner playing an idiot teen YouTube channel star who is so stupid she's hypnotic....five interesting minutes...
Fans of the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles can probably expect resentment in some corners before Sunday’s Super Bowl, in part because they can misbehave at times.
That wasn’t lost on Colin Jost during “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update. He zinged the big-game faithful with a supreme burn on Saturday night.
“The Philadelphia Eagles will face the New England Patriots in this year’s Super Bowl,” Jost said, “making it the first Super Bowl where the fans have even worse brain damage than the players.”
12/ Although informal, here is a poll where Florida comes dead last in everything.....it's meant to be amusing and satirical, but when you read and chuckle, think "The Villages" and it's not so funny any more....
Florida ranks dead last when it comes to rating the best states in the nation. Michigan ranks No. 1, the very best state in the union.
Let that sink in for awhile. Michigan, the state that gave us the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock (the poor man’s Ted Nugent), is 49 states better than Florida.
Thrillist’s Definitive and Final Ranking of All 50 States list ranked the states “based on everything.” Specifically, the states’ contributions to America, like inventions, food and drink, “somewhat productive famous people,” and unique physical beauty, among other things.
Guess Mr. 305 Pitbull isn’t productive enough for Thrillist’s tastes.
Florida, the state that gave the nation a mathematics lesson in the 2000 president election, the state that has the best subs in the nation (thanks, Publix) and the state that gave us the Florida Man Twitter feed.
The worst.
Todays video - Born to Create Drama, including a new one.....
Todays geezer joke....
One day Rich didn't show up. Russ didn't think much about it and figured maybe he had a cold or something..
But after Rich hadn't shown up for a week or so, Russ really got worried.
However, since the only time they ever got together was at the park, Russ didn't know where Rich lived, so he was unable to find
out what had happened to him.
A month had passed, and Russ figured he had seen the last of Rich, but one day, Russ approached the park and-- lo and behold! -- there sat Rich!
Russ was very excited and happy to see him and told him so.
Then he said, 'For crying out loud Rich, what in the world happened to you?'
Rich replied, 'I have been in jail.'
'Jail!' cried Russ. What in the world for?'
'Well,' Rich said, 'you know Sue, that cute little blonde waitress at the coffee shop where I sometimes go?'
'Yeah,' said Russ, 'I remember her. What about her?'
'Well, the little gold-digging witch figured I was rich and she filed rape charges against me; and, at 89 years old, I was so proud that when I got into court, I pleaded 'guilty'.
'The judge gave me 30 days for perjury.'
Todays salesman joke
A young guy from Texas moves to California and goes to a big department store looking for a job. The manager says, “Do you have any sales experience?” The kid says, “Yeah, I was a salesman back home in Texas. “Well, the boss liked the kid so he gave him the job. “You start tomorrow. I’ll come down after we close and see how you did.”
His first day on the job was rough but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down. “How many sales did you make today?” The kid says, “One.” The boss says, “Just one? Our sales people average 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale for?”
Kid says, “$101,237.64.” Boss says, “$101,237.64? What the hell did you sell?”
Kid says, “First I sold him a small fish hook. Then I sold him a medium fish hook. Then I sold him a larger fish hook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down at the coast, so I told him he was gonna need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him that twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn’t think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4X4 Blazer.”
The boss said, “A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and truck?”
Kid says, “No, he came in here to buy a box of tampons for his wife and I said, ‘Well, your weekend’s shot, you might as well go fishing”
Todays Doctor joke
A friend of mine, after 7 years of medical school and training, has been fired for one minor indiscretion.
He slept with one of his patients and can no longer work in the profession.
What a waste of time, effort, training, and money. Even worse is the fact that he's still paying on his school loans.
This just goes to show how one little mistake can ruin your life.
Thoughts for him and his family.
He really is a great person, and a brilliant veterinarian.
