1/ When I read Andrew Sullivan's columns about where this country is going I get the chills......read this excellent piece, you will too.....
It seems so long ago now. Almost immediately after Trump took office, the denial of reality began. The president’s and his spokesperson’s insistence that his inauguration crowd was the biggest in history — and certainly bigger than Obama’s — belied what everyone could see with their bare, lyin’ eyes. At the time, I wonderedwhether the president was psychologically unwell. Three thousand lies later, we have a fuller picture.
The president believes what he wants to believe, creates a reality that fits his delusions, and then insists, with extraordinary energy and stamina, that his delusions are the truth. His psychological illness, moreover, is capable of outlasting anyone else’s mental health. Objective reality that contradicts his delusions is discounted as “fake news” propagated by “our country’s greatest enemy,” i.e., reporters. If someone behaved like this in my actual life, if someone kept insisting that the sea was red and the sky green, I’d assume they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic. It’s vital for us to remember this every day: Almost no one else in public life is so openly living in his own disturbed world.
2/ Stephen Colbert on Trump caving to public disgust on jailing children.....very good indeed, 7 minutes....he's quite passionate in parts....
Stephen Colbert mocked President Donald Trump for “folding” on his immigration policy that separated illegal immigrant families at the southern border.
Colbert slammed the president for insisting last week that he couldn’t sign an executive order to stop the separation and that only Congress could do it, which was followed by an executive order that actually kept families together.
“And just in time too. Melania was about to turn herself in to the border,” Colbert quipped.
3/ The audio with subtitles of young immigrant children in a Texas cage prison being mocked by Border Patrol agents as they cry for their parents.....it's beyond disgusting.....
The cries are gut-wrenching.
In audio obtained by ProPublica and released on Monday, the sobbing of ten Central American children crying for their parents offers a glimpse at the child suffering going on at the nation’s borders.
At one point, a young girl is heard asking about her aunt.
“My mommy says that I’ll go with my aunt,” she says, “and that she’ll come to pick me up there as quickly as possible.”
Nearby other children are crying too but a Border Control Agent seemed unmoved.
“Well, we have an orchestra here,” the deep, adult voice jokes amid the tears. “What’s missing is a conductor.”
4/ And the news that they now have prisons for babies makes even a pro like Rachel Maddow break down and cry.....she couldn't read this heartbreaking story.....90 seconds....
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow just couldn’t bear to read the words in front of her on Tuesday’s show.
The words were from an AP story on the separation of children from their families at the nation’s border.
5/ Sam Bee with a great comic analysis of the Trump child prison policy.....and she has one incredibly good zinger [if you keep up with the news] in between the jokes....six minutes....
On Wednesday night, Samantha Bee slammed President Donald Trumpfor his executive order that ended the separation of illegal immigrant families at the southern border.
Trump reversed his policy of separating migrant children from their parents that had sparked intense backlash over the past week. And the executive order he signed Wednesday afternoon will keep children and parents detained together “indefinitely.”
“Yay! No more baby interment camps, just regular internment camps… Cool! That’s what we call a win in 2018,” Bee exclaimed. “To be clear, I am happy that at least these kids are theoretically are gonna stay with their parents, but Mommy & Me Jails are not a solution.”
6/ A painfully amusing piece from John Oliver on Jeff Sessions....it's a very funny four minutes, but some of the pain comes from having to think about a worthless scumbag like Sessions....
On Sunday, John Oliver joined the long line of critics of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy of separating children from their parents at the border.
Oliver pointed out that the policy was instated by Attorney General and “least fun thing to find in a Kinder egg” Jeff Sessions, saying it was “objectively awful.”
“I cannot stress this enough. There is no law that suddenly required separating parents from their children,” Oliver explained. “This was the result of a deliberate policy choice by Jeff Sessions, a man so small he can wear – and this is true – a raspberry as a hat. That’s a fact.”
7/ This article refers to US Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon being refused entry to the Brownsville detention facility for migrants, and the facility guards laughing at him and calling the police to have him taken away.....yes this really happened.
Now read on......
Do Americans Know How Much Trouble They’re In?
Why America is at a Crossroads in History — and There Might Not be Any Way Back to Normal, Sane, or Civilized
A President who invokes absolute authority to…pardon himself. An ambassador to Germany who declares he wants to…topple the German government. Senators — the most powerful people in democracy, save the President — knocking on the door of a “detainment center”, looking for kids separated from their parents, only to be denied by guards who…laugh at them contemptuously, call the police, and have them shooed away like nobodies.
Do Americans understand how much trouble they’re now in? How grave the threat to America’s constitutional democracy, its civil society, its place in the world, and its ongoing survival is?
8/ Bill Maher with a most interesting idea - a "me too" moment for cops....
Bill Maher closed his show Friday night by addressing police brutality in America.
“We need to stop saying that ‘most cops are good’ like we know that to be true,” Maher said. “I hope it’s true, but I need some evidence… unlike cops. The bad ones, not the good ones. The problem is, again, we don’t really know what that percentage is. That’s what I’m asking tonight. If most cops are good, why are there so many videos of them being bad?”
Maher then referred to a few recent instances of videos that went viral of cops using physical violence on unarmed individuals including a woman on the beach and a homeless man.
“That’s a lot of videos of guys that barely exist doing sh*t that hardly ever happens,” Maher reacted. “This is why NFL players want to take a knee, not because they hate the anthem.”
9/ The evil being done by Trump and his minions to immigrants plays well with his racist base and evangelical "Christians", but as a political strategy isn't the smartest.....a pollster tells us why in the Times....
Political commentators and strategists write with some awe of President Trump’s outrageous, gutsy strategy of ginning up his base with one more attack on black athletes, one more crackdown on Central American mothers and children on the Mexican border, one more assault on Obamacare, one more tariff on imports. They think Mr. Trump’s drumbeat is intensifying loyalty and fervor among Republican partisans and that the Republican Party we used to know is “taking a nap somewhere,” as John Boehner, the former speaker of the House, put it.
Much more worrisome for those of us who think the country needs a blue wave in 2018 is the way Mr. Trump’s strategy appears to be raising his job approval ratings and closing the enthusiasm gap with Democrats that has been a critical element in the handful of off-year elections since 2016. Any wave election worth its salt — like the 1974 Watergate cleansing, the 1994 Gingrich revolution or the 2010 Tea Party shellacking — is produced by the elevated energy and enthusiasm of one party and the demoralization and fracturing of the other.
10/ Stephen Colbert hates Sarah Huckabee Sanders......a wonderfully wicked nine minutes....
According to CNN, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not want to have to answer questions about the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border. So she called in Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to do it for her.
“When it comes to the news, let’s face it—we don’t want to face it,” Stephen Colbert said in his Late Show monologue Tuesday night. When it comes to the border story, the host said people have two choices: “You can be horrified or you can work for Donald Trump.
“Sarah, you think you don’t want to talk about child separation policy?” he asked Sanders, “Try doing it on a comedy show!” Echoing those who envy his job, he said, “Oh you must love the Trump administration, Stephen, the sadness just writes itself.”
11/ The horrible things being done to immigrants aren't just at the border - here is a Mexican man with a green card, a productive citizen and grandparent looking after his grandkids who is being deported for a minor domestic charge 20 years ago.....
A minor issue 20 years ago cancels your green card? Only if you're Hispanic.....
It's awful - all of their lives ruined.....
Jose Luis Garcia, 62, with his granddaughter Marley. Mr. Garcia, who came from Mexico and is a legal resident of the United States,
was arrested by immigration officials because of a misdemeanor conviction from nearly 20 years ago, his lawyer and family said.
12/ The British comedian Tracey Ullman with an episode called "Melaniabot"......most amusing and cleverly done......three minutes...
13/ Benjamin Studebaker with an analysis, using common sense everyone can understand on why it's good business to raise the minimum wage....so logical even a Republican will get it!
How to Use Minimum Wage Laws to Improve Local Schools
by Benjamin Studebaker
In American towns, school systems are the backbone. Strong schools attract affluent residents. Affluent residents boost land values and median incomes. Higher land values and median incomes means higher tax revenue. Higher tax revenue means more money for schools. More money for schools means strong schools, and that means more affluent residents. It’s a virtuous circle:
What kills American towns are low income residents. Low income residents lower the amount of tax revenue local schools have per student, damaging school performance.
14/ One of the issues with environmental stories about South Florida is that nobody is willing to be specific, which is why this story from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel by Dr. Harold Wanless, a Professor at UM is so unsettling. According to him the rise in sea level for South Florida by 2046 [28 years from now] will be a minimum of 2.7 feet up to 3.4 feet.
Considering the fact that in the November king tides the water is over most seawalls in canals, another 3 feet will make a lot of houses uninhabitable. This is without any storm surges/hurricane winds etc etc. Note also 28 years is within the lifetime of a 30 year mortgage......
You folks in South Florida need to start thinking about alternatives ....remember the amusing Asics ad with the two native guys and the lion?
Your property value is like the ad.....the smart one who acts first wins.....
Let’s put this global warming and climate change thing in perspective.
For the past million years, atmospheric carbon dioxide fluctuated between 180 parts per million (ppm) and 280 ppm about every 100,000 years, and, in concert, temperature cooled and warmed and sea level went down and up 330 feet or more.
These natural changes in carbon dioxide, temperature and sea level occurred over thousands of years as Earth changed how she presented herself to the Sun – cycles of a more and less circular orbit and changes in the amount and direction of the tilt of her axis to the sun.
For the first time in the paleo-record, carbon dioxide levels have risen by more than 110 ppm and within only 100 years because of our burning fossil fuels. The overall human-generated rise in carbon dioxide from 280 to 410 ppm is more than double the 180-280 ppm post-glacial increase which drove 420 feet of sea-level rise in response to natural warming and ice melt – and it has happened 100 times faster!
Earth’s climate is now severely out of balance and will respond in unprecedented, dire, and most certainly rapid ways.
15/ First - Beyonce and Jay Z's new music video "Apeshit", shot in the Louvre in Paris.......it's visually stunning and features fine art, almost naked dancers and incomprehensible lyrics....
As a song it's marginal, but as a music video - amazing....
Second - Vulture tells you what it all means.....
Go to the corner and think about what you’ve done, Musée d’Orsay. Beyoncé and Jay-Z, ever the ones to anticipate your summer sonic needs, dropped a surprise joint album Everything Is Love last night, pairing a stunning visual element with the track “Apeshit.” But they’re not here just to drop some killer lines and don pastel suits around metropolitan Paris.
16/ And since the hit movie [still in theaters] "Oceans 8" is a heist movie, here's a list for you movie buffs of the 25 best heist movies ever made.....it's a good list...
I've seen 9 of these movies, how many have you seen?
A priceless haul. A crack team of thieves. A plan that can’t fail. Welcome to the world of heist films, a genre with a familiar setup but the infinite pleasures of watching smooth criminals try to beat the odds and avoid getting caught. This week, Ocean’s 8 adds its name to a list of high-profile capers, offering a female-centric spin on the Ocean’s franchise, which began with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and their buddies 17 years ago. But the heist film has always been a beloved Hollywood staple:
Todays video - a great wildlife commercial.....and the follow up comes right after......
Todays deep thoughts
· Do twins ever realize that one of them was unplanned?· What if my dog only brings back my ball because he thinks I like throwing it?· If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?· Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C?· Why is the letter W, in English, called double U? Shouldn't it be called double V?· Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and it just takes 75-100 years to fully work.· Every time you clean something, you just make something else dirty.· The word "swims" upside-down is still "swims".· Intentionally losing a game of rock, paper, and scissors is just as hard as trying to win.· 100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.· Your future self is watching you right now through memories.· If you replace "W" with "T" in "What, Where and When", you get the answer to each of them.· Many animals probably need glasses, but nobody knows it.· If you rip a hole in a net, there are actually fewer holes in it than there were before.· If 2/2/22 falls on a Tuesday, we'll just call it "2's Day". (It does fall on a Tuesday)· 100 years ago a Twenty Dollar bill and a Twenty Dollar gold piece were interchangeable. Either one would buy a new suit, new shoes and a night on the town. The Twenty Dollar gold piece will still do that.Todays blonde joke
Three women are about to be executed for crimes. One's a brunette, one's a redhead, and one's a blonde.
Two guards brings the brunette forward, and the executioner asks if she has any last requests.
She says no, and the executioner shouts, "Ready . . . Aim . . ."
Suddenly the brunette yells, "earthquake!!"
Everyone is startled and looks around. She manages to escape.
The angry guards then bring the redhead forward, and the executioner asks if she has any last requests.
She says no, and the executioner shouts, "Ready . . . Aim . . ."
The redhead then screams, "tornado!!" Yet again, everyone is startled and looks around. She too escapes execution.
By this point, the blonde has figured out what the others did.
The guards bring her forward, and the executioner asks if she has any last requests.
She also says no, and the executioner shouts, Ready . . . Aim . . ."
The blonde shouts, "fire!!"
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