1/. Frank Rich on the news of the week......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: the GOP’s status as the law-and-order party, the political effects of the recent stock market turmoil, and the ongoing wrangling over whether Donald Trump will sit down with Robert Mueller.
In the fallout from the Nunes memo (and amid promises of more Nunes memos), the GOP finds itself in opposition to federal institutions of both law enforcement and national security. Isn’t this a radical shift for the party that once presented itself as the champion of law and order and portrayed the Democrats as soft on crime?
It is indeed stunning that the party which routinely trashed the Democrats for championing “criminals’ rights” (a.k.a. civil rights) is now, at its highest levels, vilifying the FBI and the Department of Justice.
2/. Stephen Colbert on "the parade"....some great zingers in this six minutes....
Stephen Colbert’s commentary was more blunt: He simply called the parade idea “stupid.”
“No one comes up with dumber ideas. At this point, he’s really his own competition: He’s the Usain Bolt of stupid.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“Trump told the Pentagon to plan a military parade. All right, check your cards — who has dictator bingo? I was close, I had ‘rallies’ and ‘attack the free press’; I didn’t have ‘military parade.’ ” — STEPHEN COLBERT
3/. For the Democratic Party elites, the election of 2016 never happened.....
FOR A PARTY HEAVILY INVESTED in defining what’s normal for the rest of us, the Democrats have a rather distressing sense of how the concept applies to their own flagging political fortunes. Handed a golden opportunity to deliver a forward-looking message in response to a lackluster state of the union address by the least popular first-term president in modern history, lead strategists and consultants for our notional party of the people did what they always do: they coughed up the heir to an exhausted liberal-managerial brand, to assure a vast nationwide viewing audience that theirs is the American political franchise terminally resistant to new ideas.
Not that Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Kennedy III’s rhetoric or broad policy dictums were all that objectionable on their own terms. It’s good, and necessary, to sound a note of inclusion and compassion in the face of the racist slanders and authoritarian commands of Trumpism—and Kennedy was capable enough in delivering that very anodyne message and hitting his capaciously designated mark.
No, the designation of a third-generation scion of an insular dynastic clan as a “rising star” of the opposition party represents a deeper structural disorder—one that’s disfigured the Democrats’ anemic national strategizing for the better part of a generation.
4/. Paul Krugman in the Times on why there are so many idiots and outright dangerous flunkies running the branches of Government.....a very good column....
A few days after President Trump was inaugurated, Benjamin Wittes, editor of the influential Lawfare blog, came up with a pithy summary of the new administration: “malevolence tempered by incompetence.” A year later, that rings truer than ever.
In fact, this has been a big week for malevolence. But today’s column will focus on the incompetence, whose full depths — and consequences — we’re just starting to see.
Let’s start with a few recent stories.
In his State of the Union, Trump devoted part of one sentence to the disaster in Puerto Rico, struck by Hurricane Maria. “We are with you, we love you,” he declared. But the island’s residents, almost a third of whom are still without power four months after the storm, aren’t exactly feeling that love — especially because on the very day Trump said those words, FEMA officials told NPR that the disaster agency was ending its work on the island.
FEMA later said that this was a miscommunication. But at the very least it suggests a complete lack of focus.
5/. Bill Maher with a "New Rules" message to "the Base".....you were duped!
Bill Maher wants Donald Trump’s supporters to confess that the president duped them over his U.S.-Mexico border wall campaign promise.
“Just admit you got conned when you actually thought that Blob the Builder was going to erect the Eighth Wonder of the World for free and Mexico would pick up the check,” Maher said on Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time.”
“C’mon man, we’ve all been there. You bought weed in the park and when you got home, it was pine needles and oregano,” he added.
Maher later broke down why Trump’s supporters don’t actually need the southern border barrier. Because “everything that wall represents — the bigotry, the racism, the ignorance, the paranoia — is already in your heart,” he said.
6/. Politics as blood sport - Trump style.....why we are so divided. It's on purpose of course, and tribal.....
For all those sour headlines about slumping ratings and player protests, the National Football League landed a dandy matchup for its marquee event. More than 110 million Americans will probably watch Sunday’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles. The contest will instantly become one of the most-watched programs in American history.
On days like this, my mind fixes on “The Sporting Spirit,” an essay written by George Orwell in 1945 that sought to reckon with the rise of our modern athletic-industrial complex.
7/. Trevor Noah on Hannity and the Memo....a funny four minutes...
On Monday night, Trevor Noah slammed Sean Hannity over his hyping of the GOP memo that was released last week.
The Daily Show host mocked how President Trump took a victory lap in insisting that the memo vindicates him in the ongoing Mueller investigation despite several congressional Republicans, including Congressman Trey Gowdy who co-authored the memo, stating it will have no impact on the special counsel’s probe.
“If you’re truly devoted to the Church of Trump, then you know that the memo’s true reason for being is to discredit the FBI, which is why the words of the memo mean much less than the spirit of the memo,” Noah said. “And this is a concept that no one understands better than Trump’s archbishop of bullsh#t.”
8/. Tom Tomorrow on the most evil gub'mint agency there is....ICE....
9/ Bill Maher's opener from last week....six funny minutes of standup......
Bill Maher took aim at House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Friday night’s broadcast of “Real Time.”
Maher suggested a memo drafted by Nunes’ staff that alleges the FBI and the Justice Department inappropriately spied on President Donald Trump’s campaign team is “not an intelligence document.”
Instead, Maher likened the dossier — which Nunes released Friday after Trump declassified it — to “a Facebook post that you briefly skim before clicking unfriend.”
“Republicans talk about this memo like it’s some smoking gun piece of evidence that they uncovered,” Maher said. “No. They wrote it. They uncovered it in their printer.”
10/. An amusing take from SNL on the Super Bowl, by comparing it to the 1800's.....some cameos from former stars.....an interesting six minutes, and explains why we hate the New England Patriots to this day....
Seeing Rachel Dratch on the show is always a delight, here essentially re-imagining her Boston-based Denise character (sans Jimmy Fallon) as a 1775 freedom fighter. Portman's Massachusetts accent wavers throughout the sketch, but her enthusiasm compensates for the occasional pronouncing of r's at the end of her words. Heidi Gardner's line "We got the most rocks in our soil, so how you like us NOW?" is the most South Shore thing I've ever heard, and it is also worth noting that Luke Null's two Connecticut jokes were brilliantly delivered.
Had this only been the Founding Fathers annoyed with the constant bragging of New Englanders, this would have been a solid sketch. Bringing in Tina Fey to throw down the comedic hammer took it over the top, even if her line about Boston just being a "college town with a fishing pier" hurt more than I'd like to admit. SNL often struggles in the realm of sports comedy, but placing this in a historical context was a truly inspired move. Look for this sketch to appear everywhere in the run up to and aftermath of tonight's Super Bowl.
11/. Absolutely fascinating story about an American from California who had surgery in Germany, and how the medical system in Europe handles pain meds......
MUNICH — I recently had a hysterectomy here in Munich, where we moved from California four years ago for my husband’s job. Even though his job ended a year ago, we decided to stay while he tries to start a business. Thanks to the German health care system, our insurance remained in force. This, however, is not a story about the benefits of universal health care.
Thanks to modern medicine, my hysterectomy was performed laparoscopically, without an overnight hospital stay. My only concern about this early release was pain management. The fibroids that necessitated the surgery were particularly large and painful, and the procedure would be more complicated.
I brought up the subject of painkillers with my gynecologist weeks before my surgery. She said that I would be given ibuprofen. “Is that it?” I asked. “That’s what I take if I have a headache. The removal of an organ certainly deserves more.”
“That’s all you will need,” she said, with the body confidence that comes from a lifetime of skiing in crisp, Alpine air.
12/. A two minute mashup of some of the most memorable Super Bowl commercials.....they show a few seconds from each one, but you should remember them all!nic Commercials From Past Super Bowls
From Wendy's "Where's the beef?" to Britney Spears' 2001 Pespi ad, here are the Super Bowl commercials you will enjoy rewatching.
13/. Good TV [if you like Sci-Fi] - "Altered Carbon" on Netflix....
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I love the nightlife. I like to boogie.
There are a lot of serious topics covered in Altered Carbon, a new science fiction series from Netflix.
The show touches on income inequality and classism. It delves into misogynistic power structures and the nature of identity. It touches on just how much of our morality is driven by the fact that we die and what might happen if death suddenly stopped being an endpoint and, instead, became a minor stopgap in an ultimately immortal life. It even touches on environmental issues in a few sidelong glances.
But that is not what I’m here to talk to you about. Because while watching Altered Carbon — even the stuff I didn’t like all that much — my primary critical reaction was, “This is so RAD!!!!” Imagine me sitting in the back of eighth-grade study hall, filling my notebook with scrawled images from this show (that my parents don’t know I’ve seen, because if they did, my Netflix consumption would be seriously questioned), occasionally clicking over my four-color pen to red to write the word “rad” in all caps in the margins. Then I’d draw a dragon playing an electric guitar.
Todays employee jokes....
Funny Quotes from Employee Performance Evaluations
Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
Unknown
- Since my last report, he has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.
- His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity.
- I would not allow this employee to breed.
- Works well when under constant supervision and cornered in a trap
- When he opens his mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there.
- He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle.
- This young lady has delusions of adequacy.
- She sets low personal standards, then consistently fails to achieve them.
- This employee should go far --- and the sooner he starts, the better.
- This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.
Δ
Ten More Funny Quotes From Employee Evaluations
- Got into the gene pool while the lifeguard wasn't watching. Then he fell out of the family tree.
- A room temperature I.Q. If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week.
- Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
- Got a full six-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together.
- A gross ignoramus -- 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus.
- A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on.
- A prime candidate for natural de-selection. It's hard to believe he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm.
- Bright as Alaska in December.
- If brains were taxed, he'd get a rebate.
- Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; but he only gargles.
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