1/ Wow. This story resonated with me, and it may well do the same for you......
The Democratic Party Has an ‘MSNBC Problem’
And again if you want to watch real news, Vice News on HBO weeknights at 7.30pm is a professional, balanced national and international news organization.....
“The Democrats need to stop obsessing about Trump and Russia, and start talking about the bread-and-butter issues that matter to ordinary people.” Since Donald Trump took office, that sentiment has been a refrain for the party’s leading critics on both the left and right. It is also fundamentally unfair.
In truth, the Democratic Party is quite focused on promoting a progressive critique of the GOP’s positions on taxes, health care, and social spending, because it knows that Republicans are deeply vulnerable on those issues. MSNBC, CNN, and the broader mainstream media, however, are obsessed with the White House’s myriad scandals – because they know that a federal investigation into the American president’s potential ties to the Kremlin (and/or porn stars and/or white-collar crime) is ratings gold — while daily broadcasts reiterating the regressive implications of the GOP’s tax law and health-care plans would be anything but.
2/ Last night's SNL cold open with Trump and the crew.....five amusing minutes.....especially Eric!
Alec Baldwin is basically an “S.N.L.” cast member at this point, so the show had to up the ante on guest stars in the last opening sketch of the season. The A-listers filtered in slowly, over the course of a sketch that spoofed the famously cryptic series finale of “The Sopranos.” Baldwin’s Trump strode into Holsten’s Restaurant in Bloomfield, N.J., cued up Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the jukebox and asked the waitress, “Is HPV different from H.I.V.?”
The first Trump associate to bluster in was Rudy Giuliani, played by McKinnon, who gave a boastful play-by-play of his puzzling appearance on Fox News earlier this month. “I told them you were openly colluding with Russia,” McKinnon bragged, “and then I said, ‘So what?’”
3/ Jimmy Kimmel with three minutes on the Santa Fe shooting, calling them all out. Excellent. Excellent.....
Jimmy Kimmel fiercely rebuked President Donald Trump and lawmakers on Friday night, hours after 10 people were killed in a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas.
“President Trump said he is ‘with the people of Santa Fe in this tragic hour and will be with them forever,’ except for when it comes time to do something ― then he will not be with them, and neither will any of the congresspeople or governors who don’t ever do anything because they are fearful that it will hurt them politically,” Kimmel said.
“They know the truth, they know this has gone too far,” he added. “But they are too cowardly to do the right thing.”
Kimmel said Trump and lawmakers care more about the support of the National Rifle Association “than they do about children.” “So they sit there with their hands in their pockets, pockets that are full of gun money, and they do nothing. They just wait for the outrage to pass,” he said.
4/ Deadpool takes over Stephen Colbert's opener, with some pretty good jokes......great guy movie by the way, just saw it on the monster screen at our new Epic Theater in Mount Dora........
Stephen Colbert got a visit from Ryan Reynolds, suited up as Deadpool, who delivered some of the night’s best political jokes
Ryan Reynolds crashed Colbert’s monologue halfway through, decked out in the regalia of Deadpool, the superhero he plays in the new film “Deadpool 2.” He read off some of the night’s funniest political punchlines.
“The administration is still dealing with the fallout from Trump announcing that the U.S. will be pulling out of the Iran deal. It’s Trump’s biggest pulling-out blunder since Eric.” — RYAN REYNOLDS, as Deadpool“President Trump spent the day complaining on Twitter about leaks inside the White House. Because we all know Trump prefers his leaks in Russian hotel rooms.” — RYAN REYNOLDS, as Deadpool
5/ Bill Maher with "25 Things You Don't Know About Michael Cohen".....one minute....and BTW it's eight funny things....
Bill Maher reprised his spoof “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me” comedy bit on Friday to poke fun at Michael Cohen, the embattled personal attorney to President Donald Trump.
The “Real Time with Bill Maher” host imagined the kind of things Cohen might say if he were ever asked to take part in Us Weekly’s regular feature.
6/ Andrew Sullivan with quite a depressing column.....well written, savvy but his conclusions are not what we want to hear....that Trump is winning....
In one respect, it seems to me, the presidency of Donald Trump has been remarkably successful. In 17 months, he has effectively erased Barack Obama’s two-term legacy.
I don’t want to say or face this. I still want to believe my colleague, Jonathan Chait, whose thesis is that the changes Obama made in his difficult but tenacious eight years in office are too great to reverse. And there are a couple of shifts that do indeed seem to be as permanent as anything is in politics: marriage equality and legal cannabis. But neither, one recalls, was a signature goal of Obama. He began as an alleged opponent of marriage equality, even though, of course, he was bullshitting. He wouldn’t touch the marijuana issue in his entire term and even at one point dismissed it as trivial. As for the rest, in specific policy terms, Trump and the Republican Congress have succeeded in undoing Obama’s work to an extent I barely anticipated.
7/ Now THIS is what's called focus...
8/ Read Frank Richs' assessment of the ceremony in Jerusalem opening the embassy......wow.....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, Trump faith adviser Robert Jeffress, Trump’s no-apologies policy, and Tom Wolfe’s legacy.
The opening ceremony for the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem included a prayer led by Robert Jeffress, the Dallas pastor and Trump faith adviser who has spoken out against Islam and Mormonism, and infamously said that “you can’t be saved by being a Jew.” Did Trump use Jeffress’s invitation, and the rest of the ceremony, to send a message?
Yes, Trump was sending a message with the horror show he orchestrated in Jerusalem. But the message had nothing to do with his administration’s purported goal of seeking peace in the Middle East — a cause that has been set back indefinitely by his provocative relocation of the American embassy. Trump’s message, per usual, was for his own selfish political aims. It was targeted at his base, whose most loyal members are right-wing Evangelicals. And so the ceremony included not only a prayer from Jeffress, whose disdain for Jews is matched only by his loathing of Mormons and Muslims, but a benediction from John Hagee, an Evangelical crackpot notorious for telling NPR’s “Fresh Air” that God created Katrina to punish New Orleans for hosting “a homosexual parade.”
9/ Seth Meyers with a summary of the weeks bad news for Trump.....nine minutes of comedic reporting....
If you thought you were having trouble following the latest Trump news, try being a late-night TV host. In an “A Closer Look” Thursday night, Seth Meyers lamented just how difficult it is to keep up with all the President’s shenanigans, from more Michael Cohen-Stormy Daniels news to the latest Rudy Giuliani nonsense. In fact, at the top of the segment, the Late Night host just sat there with his mouth open so a recording could fill in the newest Trump updates. “We had to make some educated guesses,” he admitted, after the recording reported that authorities were pursuing Trump in a white Ford Bronco.
10/ Matt Taibbi nails the hapless failure of the National Democratic Party....an exceptionally discouraging story, but read it anyway because some of the candidates are getting it done in spite of the national party....
Excellent commentary - every Democrat needs to read this....
PART ONE
The VigWoodstock high school history teacher Jeff Beals decided to run for Congress late last year. He set up a time to talk to national Democrats about his run. The call was set for four in the afternoon, just after he finished classes.
Ten minutes before four, his cell rang. A local political operative with connections to the party was on the line.
Ten minutes before four, his cell rang. A local political operative with connections to the party was on the line.
"So," the man said. "I hear you have a call at four. OK if I prep you?"
Beals, a bright-eyed, lean-framed ex-diplomat who'd been all over the world and seen some bizarre things in his relatively young life, was experiencing the first moments of a political career. Before anyone in politics even knew who he was, he was already being coached on what to say.
Beals, a bright-eyed, lean-framed ex-diplomat who'd been all over the world and seen some bizarre things in his relatively young life, was experiencing the first moments of a political career. Before anyone in politics even knew who he was, he was already being coached on what to say.
"OK," he replied.
11/ Tina Fey's opening monologue when she fields questions from the audience.....who seem to be all celebs.....six pretty good minutes...
About an hour earlier, Fey’s opening monologue poked fun at the reliance by “S.N.L.” on well-known actors like De Niro, Alec Baldwin and Ben Stiller, all of whom had just appeared in the opening sketch. After announcing that she would take questions from the audience, she called on Seinfeld, who asked, “Do you think the show has too many celebrity cameos these days?”
Fey also fielded throwaway questions from Cumberbatch, Hathaway, De Niro, Armisen and Chris Rock. Glover, who hosted the show earlier this month and worked with Fey as a writer on “30 Rock,” asked whether Fey had seen a hat he had left backstage. “I have this system in place where I’ll be able to tell if you wore it or not,” he warned her.
The sweetest cameo of the night came at the end of the monologue, when Fey’s “30 Rock” co-star Tracy Morgan took the stage to wish her a happy birthday. (She joked that she was now 60 but had, in fact, just turned 48 on Friday.) “If your man isn’t making you feel special today, I will,” he offered.
12/ Another story from Johnathan Chait that might be new to you because the normal media doesn't connect the dots....why Michael Cohen meeting with the Qatari official is such big news, and behind the Chinese ZTE scandal......
Really interesting....they just don't care any more - their corruption is out in the open and Trump is defying anyone to do anything about it....
Last night, the Daily Mail reported a development in the Michael Cohen saga of seismic scale. In a December 2016 meeting in Trump Tower, the British tabloid reports, Cohen asked Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, who runs a $100 billion Qatari investment fund, to send him “millions” which, the story claims, would go “through him to Trump family members.”
We have already learned of multiple cases of Cohen using his access to Trump to jack up multiple corporations for outrageous sums. The Daily Mail report deepens the trouble in two crucial ways. First, it extends Cohen’s scheme from domestic corporations (or, in one case, domestic corporations controlled by foreign entities) to direct overseas fundraising. Second, and more ominously, it alleges that Cohen funneled the money to Trump’s family. It was bad enough that Trump’s lawyer was enriching himself by cashing in on access. Now the story suggests he was enriching them, transforming the Cohen bribery story into a Trump bribery story.
13/ Stephen Colbert with some excellent commentary on the ZTE Chinese scandal and other Trump news....
14/ "People Are Awesome" - best videos of the year......
15/ A well written article from the Times on Roseanne.... some good insights.....
All in the neighborhood.
The Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor famously advised her coreligionists to push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you. “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs,” she wrote. The same could be said of civil society. It is precious, delicate, rare. It requires diligent cultivation.
All the more remarkable is that O’Connor may have found in Roseanne Barr an unlikely ally for her countercultural spirit. The irony is rich — it is hard to imagine O’Connor tuning in Tuesday nights to “Roseanne” (or much of anything else on television these days) — but perhaps in another way it’s unsurprising. Today’s age is one of crude but sharp political division that threatens to devour civil society. Into this maw strides Roseanne, once derided as evidence of a society slouching toward Gomorrah. That was a quarter century ago. Today Roseanne hasn’t changed much but the country has. Enough that her voice — the one that once skirled the national anthem for a cheap laugh — now sounds a felicitous note in a culture full of vindictive political chaos.
16/ Time for a good story.....
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But some officers aren’t happy to be called in these instances, as a new video shows.
Michael Hayes, a black real estate investor in Memphis, was inspecting a house in need of repairs on May 5. A white woman who lived in the neighborhood demanded to know why he was outside.
17/ And on the same theme....very amusing......four minutes with one of Seth Meyers' writers, who is going to be a comic some day...
Amber Ruffin wasn’t thrilled by last week’s episode of “Roseanne,” in which the main character is suspicious of her Muslim neighbors until they offer her their internet password. “The minorities had to prove themselves to her,” Ruffin said. “That’s a dangerous mentality, and it isn’t limited to ‘Roseane.’”
Todays video - Gary Mule Deer with "The Golfers Dilemma".......good one, one minute...
Todays medical joke
Excellent Medical AdviceI do not understand why prescription medicine is allowed to advertise on TV or why anyone would think of trying one of the medicines after listening to the laundry list of warnings of possible side effects.
But this is definitely an exception!
Do you have feelings of inadequacy?
Do you suffer from shyness?
Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?
Do you sometimes feel stressed?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Cabernet Sauvignon.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident. It can help ease you out of your shyness and let you tell the world that you are ready and willing to do just about anything.
You will notice the benefits of Cabernet Sauvignon almost immediately, and, with a regimen of regular doses, you will overcome obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want.
Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past.
You will discover talents you never knew you had
Cabernet Sauvignon may not be right for everyone.
Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use it,
but women who would not mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.
Side effects may include:
dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, loss of motor control, loss of clothing, loss of money, delusions of grandeur, table dancing, headache, dehydration, dry mouth and a desire to sing Karaoke
and play all-night Strip Poker, Truth Or Dare and Naked Twister.
Warnings:
The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may make you think you are whispering when you are not.
The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.
The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to think you can sing.
The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most .
“LIFE IS A CABERNET OLD CHUM”!
Todays college joke....
There were four college sophomores taking chemistry, and all
of them had an 'A' so far. These four friends were so confident that the
weekend before finals, they decided to visit some friends and have a big
party.They had a great time but, after all the hearty partying, they slept
all day Sunday and didn't make it back to UW-Madison until early Monday
morning.
Rather than taking the final then, they decided that after the final they would
explain to their professor why they missed it. They said that they
visited friends in La Crosse but on the way back they had a flat tire. As a result, they
missed the final.The professor agreed they could make up the final
the next day.The guys were excited and relieved. They studied
hard that night for the exam.
The next day the Professor placed them in separate rooms and gave them a test
booklet. They quickly answered the first problem worth 5 points. Cool,
they thought!Each one, in a separate room, thought this was going to
be easy ... then they turned the page. On the second page was written..For 95 points: Which tire?
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