1/ Andrew Sullivan with a disturbing column about tribalism, and after you read it you will realize we are in a war....for our souls.....excellent insights.
And think about it - don't you know friends from the other tribe you just don't talk politics with?
The problem with tribalism is that it knows no real limiting principle.
It triggers a deep and visceral response: a defense of the tribe before all other considerations. That means, in its modern manifestation, that the tribe comes before the country as a whole, before any neutral institutions that get in its way, before reason and empiricism, and before the rule of law. It means loyalty to the tribe — and its current chief — is enforced relentlessly. And this, it seems to me, is the underlying reason why the investigation into Russian interference in the last election is now under such attack and in such trouble. In a tribalized society, there can be no legitimacy for an independent inquiry, indifferent to tribal politics. In this fray, no one is allowed to be above it.
2/ And what fuels and reinforces the tribalism? Fox News of course, so this SNL cold open about "Fox And Friends" with Alex Baldwin in bed with a burger although not the best, is accurate in it's tone.....six painfully funny minutes....
Alec Baldwin was back as President Donald Trump — under the covers, tweeting — in a “Saturday Night Live” cold open that skewered “Fox & Friends” and the FBI-attacking memo released by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).
The sketch started with Alex Moffat (playing Steve Doocy), Heidi Gardner (as Ainsley Earhardt) and Beck Bennett (as Brian Kilmeade) in the studio of “Fox & Friends,” talking via remote with White House communications director Hope Hicks (Cecily Strong).
Bennett points out her amazing career trajectory from working for Ivanka Trump’s clothing company to the White House.
A ditzed-out Strong responds: “There are no real jobs here, you know? Every day feels like when a group of strangers suddenly work together to push a beached whale back into the sea.”
3/ And if you have any doubt about the heartlessness of the Republicans watch this emotional piece from Jimmy Kimmel...on DACA. Watch Trump supporters tell a girl Dreamer who was brought up an American since she was two she should be deported....to her face.
The segment was titled "MAGA vs. DACA." Kimmel then briefly interviewed a handful of conservatives of various ethnicities and genders who were all against DACA. Each gave various reasons why DACA should not be renewed: Dreamers are here illegally, period; as adults they should have sought a legal path to citizenship; they should take their "skill sets" to their own countries (countries they've never known); America shouldn't be responsible for their parents' mistakes
anti-DACA interviewees then met Esmeralda, who was brought to the U.S. when she was two from Mexico City and is a DACA recipient, along with her young daughter Rose. Kimmel asked her a series of questions, the answers to which dispelled the usual myths about immigrants: Esmeralda has a job, pays taxes, has a Social Security card, is working to become a nurse and contributes to society.Kimmel then turned the question back to the conservatives: Knowing all this, should Esmeralda be sent back to Mexico? Half of the conservatives in the room eagerly confirmed that they felt she should.
4/ Sam Bee tells us what Trump really said in SOTU....amusing as always, five minutes....
Samantha Bee ripped into President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, saying the president "took a break from screaming about immigrants to scream slightly more politely at lawmakers about immigrants." But while Bee started by talking about the state of Trump's America, it was her view of the lack of checks and balances in the government that resonated most.
The "Full Frontal" host showed a clip from September 2016, in which a commentator said that "a Supreme Court and Congress" would serve as a check on the president.
"Where did all that check-y balance-y stuff go wrong?" Bee asked, pointing to failures by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who wanted to focus on investigating the FBI in the wake of the Nunes memo.
5/ Thomas Edsall is an excellent columnist for the Times, and this is a good one on immigration - The title is:
Trump Has Got Democrats Right Where He Wants Them
President Trump’s immigration proposal has put Democrats in a bind; they know it and he knows it.
Trump’s immigration “framework” — first outlined on Jan. 25 — represents an unusually sophisticated strategy. He proposes to more than double the number of Dreamers granted a path to citizenship, a significant concession to Democrats.
In return, he seeks approval of a set of policies strongly opposed by the left, each of which is designed to stem what Trump sees as a threatening increase in the nonwhite population of the United States.
What kind of numbers are we talking about? According to the Pew Research Center:
In 2014, immigrant women accounted for about 901,000 U.S. births, which marked a threefold increase from 1970 when immigrant women accounted for about 274,000 births. Meanwhile, the annual number of births to U.S.-born women dropped by 11 percent during that same time period, from 3.46 million in 1970 to 3.10 million in 2014.
There are now an estimated 690,000 registered Dreamers in the United States, all of whom were brought to this country as children before 2007.
6/ SNL's "Weekend Update" on the Nunes memo [funny and informative], and a hilarious visit from two legendary French actresses....seven minutes....
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, including the release of Rep. Devin Nunes' memo. Brigitte Bardot (Kate McKinnon) and Catherine Deneuve (Cecily Strong) stop by to discuss #MeToo.
7/ Apparently Michele Bachmann is waiting for a sign from God before she decides to run again, so some enterprising Minnesotan Deist helped her with her decision....
Michele Bachmann, the former Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, indicated last year that she was looking for a sign from God about whether she should run for the U.S. Senate.
God ― or rather a prankster claiming to be the deity ― answered with an actual sign:
8/ Jimmy Kimmel's full interview with Stormy Daniels....she's smart as well as gorgeous....six minutes....
Stephanie Clifford, the former pornographic-film actress known as Stormy Daniels, is not making life easy for the Trump administration. Just minutes after President Trump’s first State of the Union address ended Tuesday night, Ms. Clifford appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” where she did not deny — or confirm — having an affair with Mr. Trump.
On Tuesday afternoon, a statement claiming to be from Stormy Daniels emerged that forcefully refuted all allegations of an affair. But on Mr. Kimmel’s show, Ms. Clifford strongly implied that she had not written that denial letter. (A lawyer for Mr. Trump had issued a separate letter signed by Ms. Daniels on Jan. 10 denying the affair. That letter was not in question here.)
Mr. Kimmel pointed out that the signature on the more recent statement did not appear to match her autograph on other documents. She agreed, saying, “It does not look like my signature.” He then asked where she thought the letter had come from. “I do not know where it came from,” she said. “It came from the internet.”
9/ The tweet Trump will never send to Tehran.....and why there are riots in Iran - climate change is decimating the farmers....
After violent protests recently exploded across Iran, President Trump vowed to differentiate himself from President Barack Obama by openly tweeting his support for the demonstrators. It had no effect, though. One reason is that Trump could never send the really killer tweets — the ones that might have gone viral across Iran and rattled the regime.
What would those have said? Something like:
@realDonaldTrump “America stands with Iranian demonstrators!!! Why are so many from the countryside??? Because Iranian Revolutionary Guards mismanaged Iran’s water supply for decades. Stole all the water for their companies, cronies, pistachio farms and stupid dams!!! And now climate change and droughts are making it all worse, forcing Iranians off their land. Unfair!! Sad!!”
The Iran protests were clearly fed by many streams — The Times told a harrowing tale last weekend of how corruption and Ponzi schemes at banks owned by Iran’s clerical regime and its allies had defrauded thousands of savers, and brought some into the streets. But environmental corruption was also a cause of anger.
10/ Stephen Colbert with a funny three minutes on the Russia sanctions.....or the lack of them!
Stephen Colbert is poking holes in the reasoning offered by the State Department in its announcement Monday that it will not impose the Russia sanctions that Congress overwhelmingly passed in mid-2017.
"No one is happier with Trump right now than Russia," the Late Night host quipped, adding that the department's explanation, that "the legislation, is, in fact, serving as a deterrent," didn't have a leg to stand on because it was faulty logic.
"Oh, so voting to impose the sanctions was the sanction," he said, applying that same odd reasoning to a hypothetical murder trial. "'I sentence you to 20 years in prison. And by the look on your face, I can see you learned your lesson. You're free to go,'" Colbert said, assuming the role of a court judge. "'Bailiff, return the gentleman's knife. Wipe the blood off and give the man his knife.'"
11/ The Winter Olympics are coming up next week, and one of the hot new stars on the US team in figure skater Jason Brown.....interesting Times bio on this young man....
To watch his best skates is to be drawn into the collective animal, the one that is unreasoning, that cries out, claps, gets chills. The audience, when he takes the ice, is with him. He wants it, and they want it for him.
Why do some athletes draw this sort of response, this bodily love that is sometimes out of proportion to their actual world standing? We know, but the language doesn’t, so when the 23-year-old American figure skater Jason Brown comes up in commentators’ conversations, he has been typically described as “uncategorizable,” “a fan favorite,” a “dark horse” or, most insufficient of all, “an artist.”
If you haven’t seen Brown skating to “Reel Around the Sun” from “Riverdance” at the 2014 United States Figure Skating Championships, allow me to narrate. This performance has been viewed millions of times on YouTube, and it instantly brought Brown to worldwide prominence. The first thing you notice, as he glides on camera, is that Brown does not look like a typical figure skater.
Jason Brown's electrifying "Riverdance" performance at the 2014 US Championships....one of the best skating routines ever....
12/ Stephen Colbert on Trump's cancelling the traditional Super Bowl interview.....he's on form! Three good minutes....
Donald Trump is skipping the traditional presidential sit-down interview before this Sunday’s Super Bowl.
And Stephen Colbert has a theory why.
On Friday’s broadcast of “The Late Show,” host Colbert suggested Trump may have gotten confused over what he was actually being asked to attend.
13/ Rolling Stone ranks the Super Bowls shows from worst to best.....
There is no gig in music like the Super Bowl halftime show. You have 12 minutes to justify your legend. You have 150 million people watching, most of whom are distracted by the nachos platter, how much beer is left in the fridge or how much of the rent they bet on the Eagles. Chances are it's the biggest worldwide audience of your life, and getting it right means rising to the hugeness of the moment. Getting it wrong can crush a career. Good luck, Justin Timberlake, and try not to undress anybody this year.
And with Super Bowl 52 set for this Sunday, what better time to rank the Big Game's halftime shows from worst to best. Here's a subjective, personal, irresponsible and indefensible breakdown of the winners and losers. The Bonosand Beyoncés and Bruc
For some reason the Prince Superbowl show [#2] doesn't come up properly.....so here it is on Youtube.....this is the one in Miami when he played in the pouring rain.....
Todays bitcoin joke.....or lesson.....
A lot of monkeys lived near a village.
One day a merchant came to the village to buy these monkeys.
He announced that he will buy the monkeys @ $100 each.
The villagers thought that this man was mad.
They thought how can somebody buy stray monkeys at $100 each?
Still, some people caught some monkeys and gave them to this merchant and he gave them $100 for each monkey.
This news spread like wildfire and people caught monkeys and sold them to the merchant.
After a few days, the merchant announced that he will buy monkeys @ $200 each.
Now, even the lazy villagers ran around to catch the remaining monkeys!
They sold the remaining monkeys @ $200 each.
One day a merchant came to the village to buy these monkeys.
He announced that he will buy the monkeys @ $100 each.
The villagers thought that this man was mad.
They thought how can somebody buy stray monkeys at $100 each?
Still, some people caught some monkeys and gave them to this merchant and he gave them $100 for each monkey.
This news spread like wildfire and people caught monkeys and sold them to the merchant.
After a few days, the merchant announced that he will buy monkeys @ $200 each.
Now, even the lazy villagers ran around to catch the remaining monkeys!
They sold the remaining monkeys @ $200 each.
Then the merchant announced that he will buy monkeys @ $500 each!
The villagers start to lose sleep! They caught six monkeys, which was all that was left and got $500 each.
The villagers were waiting anxiously for the next announcement.
Then the merchant announced that he was going home for a week, and when he returns, he will buy monkeys @ $1000 each!
Then the merchant announced that he was going home for a week, and when he returns, he will buy monkeys @ $1000 each!
He asked his employee to take care of the monkeys he bought. He was alone taking care of all the monkeys in a cage.
The merchant went home.
The villagers were very sad as there were no more monkeys left for them to sell it at $1000 each. ☹️
Then the employee told them that he will sell some monkeys @ $700 each secretly.
The merchant went home.
The villagers were very sad as there were no more monkeys left for them to sell it at $1000 each. ☹️
Then the employee told them that he will sell some monkeys @ $700 each secretly.
This news spread like wildfire. Since the merchant buys monkey @ $1000 each, there is a $300 profit for each monkey.
The next day, villagers made a queue near the monkey cage.
The employee sold all the monkeys at $700 each. The rich bought monkeys in big lots. The poor borrowed money from money lenders and also bought monkeys!
The employee sold all the monkeys at $700 each. The rich bought monkeys in big lots. The poor borrowed money from money lenders and also bought monkeys!
The villagers took care of their monkeys & waited for the merchant to return.
But nobody came.
But nobody came.
Then they ran to the employee...
But he had already left too!
The villagers then realized that they have bought the useless stray monkeys @ $700 each and are unable to sell them!
But he had already left too!
The villagers then realized that they have bought the useless stray monkeys @ $700 each and are unable to sell them!
Bitcoin will be the next monkey business!
This monkey business will make a lot of people bankrupt and a few people filthy rich.
That's how it works!!
This monkey business will make a lot of people bankrupt and a few people filthy rich.
That's how it works!!
Todays Tennessee joke....
Two good ol' boys in a Tennessee trailer park were sitting around talking one afternoon over a cold beer after getting off work at the
local Nissan plant.
After a while the 1st guy says to the 2nd, "If'n I was to sneak over to your trailer Saturday & make love to your wife while you was off huntin' and she got pregnant and had a baby, would that make us kin?”
The 2nd guy crooked his head sideways for a minute, scratched his head, and squinted his eyes thinking real hard about the question. Finally, he says, "Well, I don't know about kin, but it would make us even!"
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